


It's Really Quite Simple...

by LordessScribes



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Multi, angsty, its mostly mettasans with alphyne filler because those two are the most adorable domestic pair ever, mettasans, no seriously its like 80 percent angsty, nobody dies but like sans remembers stuff and is sad a lot, pacifist ending spoilers, sans remembers past timelines and stuff, shipping garbage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:13:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6028951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordessScribes/pseuds/LordessScribes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How many times must it come back to this? It's so easy to forget amongst engagement parties, in between smiles, how many times it's all gone away. It's easy to forget behind closed doors, everything is different. It used to be so simple.</p><p>A collaborative piece, the main plotline will be mettasans with a heaping helping of alphine filler in between the angst</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Proposal

Chris’s note: So this fic is a collaborative piece between me and my best friend. I, Chris(the silver part of the username) came up with the original idea and wrote out much of the scenes, Quinn(the cinnamon part of the username) edited and rewrote it to make it look and sound pretty with their monster writing skillz. This had been hanging around in my mind for days before I told Quinn. They are the one who introduced me to mettasans as a ship and I have only gone downhill from there. Hopefully chapter two will be up within two weeks but don’t hold me to a deadline. Enjoy. 

_________________________________________________________

 

There’s a long drawn out pause in the doorway. It’s snowing outside and for once, Sans has on a different jacket. Navy blue, this one is, with a fluffy liner. He looks up into the sky; it’s the first snow he’s seen since leaving the Underground. Well, the first one this time. He isn’t sure why he feels the need to remind himself of the other times.  
Papyrus looks happy though, thick red scarf around his neck, cheerfully stepping in the snow bank on the sidewalk. It’s not like his feet will get cold, but Sans still worries and keeps an eye (or rather an eye socket) on him. Sans closes the door to the brothers’ home and double-checks the lock.  
“SANS, IF YOU DON”T HURRY UP WE’LL BE LATE”  
Papyrus says all of a sudden. Sans rolls his eyes a little at this, but nods back, kicking some ice off of the walkway. His brother is excited. Sans can’t find a reason to be yet.  
Of course, he’s pleased to be invited. Alphys and Undyne were good friends, as they were every time, yet this worried him slightly. Alphys, gods help her, was planning to use this ‘holiday get together’ as the opportunity to propose to her girlfriend. Hopefully soon to be fiancé, she had said nervously upon inviting the two skeletons. Papyrus insisted upon leaving early, too. He wanted to be there to support his friends. Sans wasn’t so keen on that. It wasn’t that he didn’t want them to be happy. Quite the opposite, actually.  
Only every time everyone was happy; there came that ripple and things would go set back. Those time changes had happened so much that Sans became used to the outcomes. This one was different though.  
“you think alphys will mind if we’re a little late, bro?” Sans can’t help but ask that out loud while the two walk down the street.  
“SANS, WE PROMISED TO STAND BY HER SIDE WHILE SHE WOOS HER LOVE, HOW COULD YOU FORGET?” Papyrus chimes. His brother nods seriously, saying ‘you’re completely right’ without having to say it.

The streets in this neighborhood aren’t cleared out like the others. Not yet anyways. The monsters that handle that aren’t ready to sweep away this crystal snowfall yet. Years of living in Snowdin made a lot of them so comfortable with this that it really feels like home now. The flakes fall repeatedly, covering the muggy view that’s made clear by faint street lamps. At the far end of the street is Dr. Alphys’s new home, a home she helped make herself. A few dogs sleep outside in the fur of an amalgam, happily nesting and waiting for its family to come. Maybe it’s for the party, maybe it’s just for fun.  
Snow angels with different numbers of arms litter the sidewalks. Sans has to move carefully to avoid stepping in any of them. Papyrus’s legs are long enough to step over each indentation in the ground they come by, but Sans stumbles and almost trips a few times. He doesn’t complain though, despite his brothers instant concern when he does so. It’s completely fine. The snow is great. Papyrus begins to worry that Sans’s head will freeze. Sans pulls his hood of fluff over his skull and it certainly feels warmer there, but it doesn’t make much of a difference.  
While they walk, they take their time. It’s not a far walk, and it provides them the opportunities to see the neighbors on their porches, sipping a drink from a steaming cup, or sitting bundled up together on rocking chairs. Papyrus waves at everyone and excitedly tells them all ‘Happy Holidays’. Sans can only bring himself to smile at them. Sometimes he’s too deep in thought to think about the holidays, and this is one of those sometimes. He doesn’t like it.

Alphys is waiting outside her door, wrapped up in a green coat over top her normal clothing. She’s petting an amalgam that came to visit for a while. It looks overjoyed when it sees the skeletons arrive (or at least as overjoyed as it can look), but it bounds off into a snow bank. Hopefully back to it’s home.

“I-I’m suh-so glad the two of you could make it!” Alphys stammers her first couple of words. Her stutter is improving a little since leaving the Underground.

“WE WOULDN”T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD, DEAR FRIEND!” Papyrus tells her excitedly, rushing up the porch to offer her a hug, which she accepts gratefully. Sans climbs the step on his own.

“I uh-honestly wuh-wasn’t expecting it to be so cold!” Alphys says. It’s a bit obvious that she’s shivering slightly.

“yeah, winters on the surface are snow joke” Sans immediately responds, then grins. Papyrus groans. His brother looks proud of his joke, however. Alphys blinks a couple of times but completely ignores it.

“R-right. Why duh-don’t you two come inside?” She gestures to the door. Papyrus opens it for her and allows Alphys to walk inside before he and Sans do.

 

The house Alphys has been working on still hasn’t been painted since it’s been built; the entrance is still an egg white. Only now it’s strung with a series of lights of bright neon colors. There are different cut out snowflakes hanging from in between every fourth and fifth bulb in the pattern. Of course they’re likely there because Alphys has a lot of time on her hands now, but it’s still an interesting setup.  
Her living room seems recently cleaned. There are even coasters placed on the tables around the room.  
Frisk and Toriel are seated on Alphys’s couch. Frisk points whenever something happens on screen; they seem to be watching a movie showing on TV.

“AH! TORIEL AND FRISK, IT’S WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU!” Papyrus exclaims. Frisk excitedly hops off the couch and runs to be picked up by the taller skeleton. They press their hands to the side of Papyrus’s face and Sans squints at this. But the second Papyrus sets them down; they tackle Sans in a hug as well.

“yeah good to see you too, kid.” Sans tells them. They let go and start talking with their hands again.  
They’ve been busy lately with school and now that they have a good while off it’s good for them to see everyone in one place again, their hands say. It’s not worded exactly that way, but the two brothers watch them sign frantically with a smile on their face.

 

“FRET NOT, HUMAN. THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOU HANG OUT WITH US ALL PLENTY BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER!” Papyrus pledged loudly, gracefully placing a hand over where a heart would be with pride. Frisk giggled, mimicking the pose in the way they always would.

“yeah, snowbody else will have as much fun!” Sans added on, grinning. The taller skeleton made a face.

“YOU ALREADY USED THAT PUN!” Papyrus exclaimed, sounding less annoyed with the pun than usual. Frisk was smiling immensely. They did always love watching these exchanges.

“soooo?” Sans held out the word jokingly with a shrug for added effect.

“IF YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE UNBEARABLE JOKES AT LEAST USE NEW MATERIAL.” Frisk’s attention snapped back to what they had been watching on TV previously and they scampered back with a little hop or two along the way.

“you don’t have to be so cold, bro.” Sans’s grin got wider while Papyrus continued fuming.

While the two brothers continued their usual routine of discussing whether or not the same joke could be used in such short vicinity, another party guest decided to show his face.  
Mettaton, in all his robotic EX glory (thankfully Alphys had somehow fixed the battery life issue recently), was busy searching for his friend in the kitchen. Of course, this search didn’t take very long before he could hear the yelling from the living room over top the slightly rising volume of the television set.  
The skeleton brothers must have finally arrived, he decided. Alphys would be with them.  
He moved in from the kitchen, heels making soft noises when the floor structure changed. Swaying walk as always, leaning down when he reached Alphys to (as discretely as possible) tap her shoulder and mutter something that no one else could quite make out. The two skeletons did, however, get to see their host’s eyes widen before she immediately dragged Mettaton towards another room away from the group.  
Not before he got to wave a slightly flirtatious hello at both of the brothers, however, who glanced at each other cautiously.

The second they were out of the room, Alphys began shaking and stammering in a loud volume.

“WUH-WHAT D-DO YOU MEAN Y-Y-YOU DON’T HAVE MY PUH-PAPER?!” She nearly screeched, followed by covering her mouth and looking down sheepishly, pausing to make sure he door was closed.

“I mean I don’t have it, dear.” Mettaton shifted his stance with arms folded.

“B-b-but I nuh-nuh-need th-that! I s-spent all n-n-nuh-night wruh-writing it!” Alphys struggled over her sentence; stutter increasing heavily as panic began setting in. Everything she’d wanted to say was gone. She couldn’t do it. Undyne couldn’t come, it wouldn’t go right, everything would be ruined, there had to be a better time, she’d just call it off! Yes, that was what she could do, but that was the whole point of this party! Why even bother doing it if-

“You do not need that paper.” Mettaton’s harsh words cut through her thoughts.

“Y-y-yes I d-do! It has ex-exactly what I nuh-need and-“ She stammered, voice faltering under his gaze.

“Darling, even if I had the paper I wouldn’t give it to you.” This phrase seemed to confuse her, so Mettaton let out some equivalent of a sigh, kneeling down to place a hand on his friend’s shoulder.  
“Alphys, sweetheart, you can’t use a paper to tell someone how you feel. I work with scripts every day but nothing ever feels more real or heartfelt than when I speak to my viewers unscripted.”

“B-but I d-d-did write h-h-huh-heart-f-felt stuff down! Well th-thought out stuh-stuff too-“ She tried weakly, wringing her wrists and looking down to the floor with some kind of shame.

“No. You wrote down a speech. A rehearsed monologue.” Mettaton moved his face so that Alphys understood he wanted her to look at him. The sincerity in his glass eyes was more than genuine. “I know it’s scary, but we’ll all be right there. You’ll do wonderfully and you’ll be happy. You can do this. Just speak from your heart. You can’t get it wrong if it’s the truth.” 

Whether or not this was enough to assure her was unclear for a moment. Her lip quivered, thinking about all she’d managed to do throughout the past year. And even before that.  
For a moment, though, she looked like she was going to burst into tears. Mettaton started worrying if he’d said something wrong and opened his mouth to apologize, but Alphys spoke first.

“Nuh-no. Y-y-you’re ruh-right. I c-c-can do this. I can do this.” She repeated that sentence again with assurance. Still shaking, though.

“Now go sweep her off her feet!” Mettaton held up a pair of thumbs with a sweet smile. Alphys tried to hold back a little bit of nervous laughter, covering her face.  
Her worry seemed almost to go away when she took a deep breath and exhaled. She could do this.

Somewhere in between a series of ‘horrendous’ jokes between Sans and Toriel, collectively laughing from Frisk, and Mettaton insisting his show was much better than whatever was on the screen, Undyne arrived at the door with Asgore by her side.  
Grinning a huge toothy grin, she greeted her small girlfriend with a hug and a slight peck on the cheek.  
Toriel had, by this time, risen up to check on the food and greeted Asgore with nothing but complete silence. No dirty looks this time, no speaking ill of him. No insisting on anything else. The look on his face echoed hers, empty and unsure.  
Certainly something good for the holidays; to trade that hostility for nothingness.  
The party only grew from there, inviting neighbors and their families. All were welcome if they knew Alphys.  
Napstablook had showed up to stand (or float) awkwardly in the corner. That was, until, their cousin demanded that everyone pay attention to them and then Napstablook was the center of attention and playing their new mixes of music for the guests. Mettaton loudly boasted how incredible his cousin was after every song, to which the ghost fidgeted awkwardly. It was hard to hide the huge smile on their face, though.

An hour passed. Alphys had started to get anxious, hearing voices chatting all around her and finally making her choice. She weaved her way through the small clumps of guests to where Undyne was chatting loudly with Toriel (whom was doing her very best to follow along with the loud speed the fish spoke at).

“uh-uhm, U-Undyne?” Alphys approached her girlfriend quietly. She hadn’t felt this kind of nervousness in years. Undyne hurriedly stopped her own sentence dead in it’s tracks and turned all attention to Alphys expectantly, blinking cheerfully.

I can do this. I can do this.  
That was the mantra Alphys repeated over ad over in her head. She hesitantly took Undyne’s hands in her own, focusing on those instead of looking her girlfriend in the eye.

“W-W-Wuh-We’ve b-been t-t-t-together for a yuh-year now, and th-that time has been the best I can remember.” The beginning of her sentence faltered but by the time she finished it, it seemed solid. Undyne glanced around in confusion before looking back at Alphys, mouth gaping a little, unsure of what exactly to do. Alphys swallowed to keep her shakiness down.  
“I n-never thought I’d find someone like you who liked me so m-much and c-c-c-cuh-cared about me like you do, m-much less someone I’d h-h-have a relationship with.” Everyone around them had fallen silent. No no no no no, please don’t watch. She kept thinking that, but managed to look up at Undyne for a moment. All the resolve she needed was in Undyne’s eyes. That patience and willingness to wait.  
Far in her peripheral vision, though, Mettaton was excitedly shaking Napstablook and urging them to watch as well. It didn’t seem to matter in that fraction of a second before she started speaking again.  
“I love you a lot, Undyne, and….and I w-w-w-want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Alphys squeezed her eyes shut and forced out the last words.  
“Will you muh-marry me?” All the silence hit her at once like a crushing weight. She was looking down again, too afraid to look back up. Far too afraid for this.

Undyne slowly pulled her hands away and pressed them against her face. Alphys looked up, desperate to see her face, but it was already covered. Panic began to set in again.

“Uh-Uh-Un-Undyne?” Her stutter came back in all her desperation for something, anything. Undyne hated her, she had to, that covering her face and shaking her head a little bit. She had to take it back; she wanted to go back, to undo. Alphys began shaking again when Undyne uncovered her face and punched her girlfriend on the arm as lightly as possible. Just like she always did. Her face was a mix of what was almost crying a joy.

“Of course, you nerd.” She managed to get out before she pulled Alphys into a bone-crushing hug and planted a huge kiss on her mouth.

It was then that the cheering started, loud and happy and all for them. Of course, Mettaton was cheering louder than any one, and Toriel’s applause was more than enough.  
Undyne’s face was almost blood red and no one had ever seen that kind of pigment on a blue fish before, yet there it was. Alphys was still shaking, but this time with the utmost happiness. There was a fluttery feeling in her chest, all the familiarity of Undyne was perfect, all of this was perfect.

She did it! She did it!

That was the shocked whisper over the crowd. It wasn’t that they thought Alphys couldn’t do it, just that in front of this crowd?

Alphys truly had done it.

Undyne’s smile was enough to prove that.

 

  
The crowd continued gushing over the couple, congratulating them and celebrating the engagement. Cheering. Laughing. Smiles all around.

Sans didn’t join them. He had cheered with them (albeit briefly) after Alphys spoke but melted back into the wall directly after. He wanted to be supportive, but deep down something lurched. Some kind of indirect emotion he wanted no part in dealing with.  
As far as Sans was concerned now, there was no point after all, the world would just reset soon. Too soon. His thoughts had come full circle again so he excused himself to sit outside.

He leaned against the fence and started to nod off as per usual. Damp sky still lit with hundreds of clumped snowflakes; it spiraled out endlessly. His eyes looked slowly out over the landscape, nostalgia for Snowdin burning in his stomach. Those winters were so much calmer, so much purer in snowfall than this smoggy mess of ice and sleet. But this was certainly heavier. Brighter even. The snow almost glowed. And it was something soft enough to send him into a sleep. Or something close to that. He’d barely let his eye sockets slip closed when a voice spoke behind him.

“Not enjoying the party, darling?” Sans jumped violently and whipped around. Mettaton stood a few feet behind him, hands on his hips with a delicate eyebrow raised.

“oh….well it’s not really my scene.” The skeleton muttered and avoided looking at him. He shrugged something off and turned back to face the landscape.

“I can respect that.” Mettaton nodded and moved, coming to rest leaning against the gate beside him, curiously watching him. Sans pretended not to notice this and went into his pockets for a carton of cigarettes. Anything to distract him. His movements fumbled a little bit, but he pretended this was normal as well.  
The lighter was much more difficult to deal with, a slight shake to his bony hands but he somehow managed to light a cigarette in between the awkwardness. He placed this in his mouth and breathed in the smoke a couple of times.

“so……why are you out here? aren’t you like, alphys’s best friend or something?” Sans finally asked after the silence became too much to bear. In all honesty, it was a thought that had crossed his mind. Mettaton was always the center of attention.

“It’s Alphys’s big debut. I’m not going to take the spotlight from her right now. I tend to do that without meaning to sometimes.” Mettaton shrugged simply, eyes fixed on Sans. He was watching the skeleton smoke with an almost confused expression, head tilted slightly.

“how selfless.” Sans replied sarcastically out of habit, trying to drop a hint that he’d like Mettaton to leave. When this didn’t seem effective, he turned his head slightly towards the robot and let out a puff of smoke, however it became lost in the snowy air and mixed into the frozen flakes falling down.

“It’s a nice night out, too. Perfect for stargazing, don’t you think?” Mettaton finally turned away and looked up into the sky. His gaze seemed almost mesmerized. And mesmerizing. Sans looked down at his hands against the railing to avoid that thought.  
“I’ve always loved how clear the stars look in the winter. Even through all the snow. I don’t always get to see them from the city.” He stared up into the darkness of the night, thousands of lights in the distance all reflecting in his eyes at once. Sans forced himself to look at the robot’s face and regretted it, seeing the calm expression.  
For a few moments, nothing was said, and it seemed like neither were sure what to do here.

“hey.” The skeleton started only to end the silence.

“Hm?”

“how do astronauts get ready for a party?” Sans grinned slyly.

“I don’t know.” Mettaton said this in a strange tone, almost like he was expecting something else.

“they planet.”

Mettaton paused, registering this in a split second and he covered his mouth to keep a giggle suppressed. After it passed, he uncovered his mouth and grinned.  
“That is positively awful.”

“aw come on! i thought it was astronomical!” Sans said, with what was equal to a little bit of newfound confidence. Mettaton snorted and covered his mouth, eyes wide in shock at himself. He took a quick breath to avoid doing that again and looked over that the skeleton again.

“Where did you come up with that?” Mettaton asked, still smiling.

“eh, i used be real into space and stars and such.” Sans shrugged and glanced up at the sky.

“Really? Why? Didn’t you live in the underground, too?” It didn’t feel like a prying question, yet it was.

“i used to live in the old capital city. real nice spot to see part of the sky. and, ya know, books n’ stuff.” Sans glanced away, desperately wanting to shift the focus off of himself again. He was holding his cigarette in between his fingers and his eyes shifted down to look at it, considering whether or not it was worth it to take another puff.

“It’d be nice to learn about that sort of thing. With the internet in your mind there’s really no point though.” Mettaton tapped his forehead twice to illustrate his thought, seemingly unaware that Sans wasn’t looking at him.

Sans paused again, cautiously thinking out what to say next before throwing all that out the window in favor of another joke.  
“how d’you know when the moon is going broke?” Mettaton fought back a smile before Sans answered; he was expecting this one.  
“when it’s down to its last quarter.”

Mettaton covered his face again to hide his snort. That was something that the robot himself would have called ‘undignified’ usually.

“i’d tell you more but they’re all too ‘out of this world’!” Sans’s grin widened but Mettaton wasn’t even looking at him again, he was too busy trying not to burst out into a series of laughs, shoulders shaking awkwardly in between snorting and giggling.  
Just so much different than how he was on TV.

Sans felt a sudden painful twinge in his chest. No. Not that memory.  
Not again.  
He forced his eyes away from Mettaton, squeezing them shut. His mind started racing in an attempt to find something, anything, to think about. Anything but that.  
Not again.

Mettaton seemed to have finally calmed down, fanning his face lightly and leaning against the rails again.

“You should come to one of my shows sometime.” He offered nonchalantly, breaking the silence. The question caught Sans by surprise. The skeleton opened his eyes again.

“uhh, yeah that sounds nice but i dunno.” Sans shrugged while trying to think of any excuse to get out of this.

“What’s wrong?” Mettaton squinted, detecting his tone.

“well…uh…you see..…my bro would get super mad if i went without him.” Sans realized that wasn’t a complete lie while making up the excuse on the spot. “he’s been a huge fan of yours since before we left the underground.”

Mettaton chuckled once at this response.  
“Well he could come too of course! You’re both fun to hang out with.” The robot spoke like this was what he’d been implying the entire time. It was just so obvious. Sans frowned a little, feeling his excuse crumble.  
“You could even have backstage passes!” A smirk accompanied this statement.

“wow. pap will be psyched. that’s, uh, really generous of you.” Sans said, it made so much sense he couldn’t turn him down. Papyrus would never let him hear the end of it if he did. Just accepting the invitation didn’t mean he had to go right? But not going would give way to too many other issues he didn’t want to even consider at the moment.

“You’re too sweet. I’d give all my fans a pass to see me if I could. I’ll go tell him now to make sure I don’t forget!” Mettaton pushed himself back a little off the railing so that he could stand up straight again. He stretched slightly and Sans covered the side of his face to keep from staring too long. The robot turned to head back indoors from here, sliding the door open with ease before spinning back to look at Sans again.  
“You should come back to the party too. I think Toriel brought butterscotch pie for everyone and I’d hate for you to miss out.” He winked (probably) once from behind snow covered eyelashes before his heels clipped loudly as he made his own entrance back inside.  
Sans let out an exhausted breath and immediately pulled his cigarette back into his mouth.  
That was more than overwhelming for him. And certainly more than enough social interaction for one day. 

 

______________________________________________________

 

The moon offered plenty of light for the cozy little dive bar, though the dim lights were turned on anyway. It had been built along the coastline of the town, narrowly tucked in between the city and the calmer neighborhoods where the monsters resided. Humans could be found lounging around outside and chatting calmly, voices making wispy breaths of visible air in the wintertime. Monsters were seen indoors, talking and drinking, laughing and sputtering, dancing and eating as though it was all they’d known. In the late nights, however, neither could be found. Sans found some kind of comfort in this quiet, subconsciously remembering the hours spent in the original bar. This was the time where he’d feel more comfortable. And usually around the time where he’d start asking strange questions.

Along to the lazy melody playing from the jukebox, the bartender of flames methodically cleaned the inside of a glass (somehow not setting the rag he was holding on fire).

“hey….uh….grillby?” Sans watched his drink with a bored expression. The drink was almost completely drained at this point in the night. “hypothetically…….just thinkin’ out loud here……if, uh, someone you may or may not have hooked up with in a previous cycle of the universe invited you and your brother to a show, how would you handle the situation?” He looked up at Grillby with a nervous face.

Grillby froze at this question before setting down the cup he was cleaning. He leaned forward and pretended to ponder the thought for a moment.

“i mean……it’s not like that’s what’s on his mind, ya know, its just as friends. but what’s the point of making friends, they’ll just reset everything the moment you get comfortable. it’d just probably be better to not go. but papyrus really wants to go, and if i don’t go it might be weird. should i call and cancel? that could totally be read as rude but it’d be so much easier to just avoid the situation entirely!” Sans rambled on, waving his hand around. His voice falters and a strange new expression crosses his face.  
“but what harm could one show do? i mean, we wouldn’t even stay long afterwards. just in and out so pap could get an autograph. that’s it. then we’d leave and i could go back to suffering quietly in an endless emotionless void.” Sans nodded as though this made perfect sense. 

“i mean……it’s just…kinda weird is all. you got what im saying, right?” The skeleton sounded desperate now.  
The bartender nodded slowly before shaking his head. Sans made an exasperated groan and dropped his head onto the counter with a slight thud.

“the fact that his face is so goddamn familiar is the worst part and i hate it.” The skeleton whined with his voice muffled.

Grillby, however, had resumed cleaning a glass (though noticeably not the same one as before, as that one had been set down next to a small number of cleaned cups).

“i could still call and cancel, but god pap would be so upset, it’s just so much easier to literally do nothing.” Sans adjusts his position so that he can rest his chin on his arms.

The bartender sets down the glass in a huff and leans forward once more. Sans blinks a couple times at this.

“grillby, ya know, my drinks empty.” The skeleton tries in order to avoid what he’d just said. Grillby folds his hands calmly in response.

“fine. i’ll go to the dumb show. just stop making that face at me.” Sans yawns halfway through this sentence. To this, Grillby nods and takes his customer’s glass off the counter and turns to one of the taps behind him.  
When he’s done filling up the glass, he sets it back down in front of Sans, who sits up immediately. It ends up half gone in a matter of seconds.

“i’m just gettin’ upset about nothin’ again, aren’t i?” The skeleton looks down at his own hands, some nagging feeling rising in his gut that he hasn’t felt in quite a while. “yeah. i’ve gotta be.”

 

__________________________________________________________

 

Quinn’s note: honestly chris leaves out all the goddamn angst lets fucking suffer. get ready nerds. join me in hell. also comment if you wanna ask shit or somethin. give me validation for this giant heap of trash i wrote. and yes. this is how quinn (the one who does all the writing and proper description) actually types.


	2. It Doesn't Matter

Quinn’s note: listen im in a creative slump i tried my best hope you enjoyed my butchering of the the english language for the sake of this fic. later nerds

___________________________________________________________ 

 

_A skeleton sitting at a bar is certainly a strange sight, but not here. The bartender is just a man made entirely of fire (yet somehow wearing clothes and glasses?) who is methodically cleaning glasses left over from the night rush._  
It’s long past midnight (closing time), but Sans still sits there. Grillby doesn’t exactly do or say anything about it, he just goes right along with cleaning up in silence.  
The lights behind the counter flicker here and there in no particular order.

_The skeleton’s drink is half gone, and he taps the rim of the glass while staring down into it._

_“hey, grillby. hypothetically speaking…” Sans starts, words stringing together when he speaks. The bartender stiffens while continuing to clean the inside of a large glass. “if the entire world just reset over and over and you remembered it…but like…nobody else did…..how…how would one go about handling that situation?”_

_Grillby pauses what he’s doing to point his face towards Sans. The skeleton is completely serious, his face looking slightly distraught._

_“i mean that sounds really fucked up and it completely is. it’s just like….y’know….you get these weird memories like, i’ve totally done this before….over and over and over…and over…and sometimes it gets like…super messed up, more so than usual. god, i need a smoke here.”_

_Sans makes this gesture with his hand, looking up slightly at the bartender, who sets down the glass and the rag he was holding (miraculous that neither of those things caught on fire). Sans lets out a breath and sets his head down on the counter. Grillby quietly pulls a pack of cigarettes out of the pockets in his apron and sets it on the counter.  
_The skeleton hesitates before grabbing it and getting a cigarette out for himself.__

_“you don’t mind…..?” He points the end of it towards grillby, who nonchalantly touches the tip of the cigarette between his first finger and thumb. It lights. One would think that it would.  
Sans immediately puts the cigarette between his teeth and takes a long breath from it, letting out the smoke in a single huff._

_“hypothetically speaking…..if you’d watched your brother die repeatedly in previous resets of the world….and you…you…knew you…couldn’t tell anyone….” Sans’s voice breaks and he covers his mouth with the hand he isn’t holding the cigarette in. He looks almost like he’s shaking now.  
Grillby is completely silent, as usual, but he looks like he’s listening intently._

_“i’m sorry, grillby, i just…..it’s still so goddamn real and i can’t stop seing it, sometimes he lives and sometimes they just straight up kill him in cold blood, how can you just…just fucking….do that to someone…” Sans struggles to keep his voice from wavering, taking another breath of smoke and letting it out again._

 

_“i mean it’s okay now, for now pap’s okay and i’m……..i’m okay..… it’s just gonna all go away again, ya know?” The skeleton has his face lowered. His shoulders shake in some kind of sob._

_The bartender walks out from behind the bar and sits on the stool beside him._

_“life fucking sucks, grillby.”  
_To which, Grillby nods slowly as though he understands. ____

 

Those days were ages ago now. That memory is gone now. Greif and unknowing replaced by stability and something resembling happiness. Grillby had certainly listened to all of Sans’s problems, sure. He was good at it. And of course, this seemed so much more helpful to the skeleton than actually telling someone who’d be able to do something about it.  
Not that anyone would know how to fix whatever sort of dissociation Sans had been feeling for months on end.  
Of course, Grillby’d suggested going to Alphys. She’d understand. She’d know more about something like this, she’d been there. Sans wouldn’t budge though. Maybe it was too unnerving to go to someone like her about a problem like this.

 

Today, perhaps, was quite a bit different that those other days. A week (who really new anymore when the days blurred together in between smiles and crying while laughing and everyone enjoying their lives) or so after Alphys and Undyne’s engagement and the monsters at Grillby’s bar were still talking about it.  
Some were so thrilled that Undyne had found a wife; anyone would be lucky to marry the captain of the Royal Guard. Even though there wasn’t much of a Royal Guard anymore. They still saw her as the heroine she was. And it’s all anyone has been talking about.  
Of course, it certainly was exciting.  
For most, that is.  
The bartender is back to cleaning methodically with what is assumed to be a slightly damp rag. The counter from the lunch-rush needs cleaning. He can only clean one side though; his most loyal customer is on the edge of sleeping on the other.  
Sans hasn’t left that seat in almost four hours now, drifting in and out of consciousness, drunkenness and sobriety come and go as well. He’s kept his mouth mostly shut whenever someone else is sitting up there, laughing at himself and talking in complete nonsense when they go.  
Grillby has only a vague idea of what he’s babbling about today.

This continues for a while. Sans teetering on being sober for a few minutes before he’d get irritated about feeling something again. The skeleton refused to get completely drunk (something about self-control) yet at the same time he was so anxious that letting loose for a while would probably be good for him.  
Regardless of whether or not he’d make it back to that point, Papyrus finds him.

Or rather, he already knew where his brother was and had only recently decided to come pick him up.

“SANS!” The taller skeleton doesn’t have to yell over the slight whispers of one or two customers (who may or may not be already out of it themselves. One is curiously smoking in the corner of their booth). It doesn’t matter though. He certainly seems to have the ability to do it anyways.  
Sans covers the sides of his head, groaning and sitting up when he recognizes his brother’s voice. Grillby picks up his empty glass and places it in a bucket with the others that have yet to be washed. Sans makes a whining noise, almost like he knows he’s about to get dragged off somewhere else.

“heyyyy pap.” Sans holds out the greeting a little while his brother stands over his shoulder angrily.

“THERE IS ONLY AN HOUR AND A HALF UNTIL METTATON’S SHOW AND YOU PROMISED TO GO WITH ME!” The taller exclaims. Grillby pauses and looks down to where Sans has rested his head on the counter again, almost as though he’d put two and two together before going back to working.

“”y’know….i’m uh not reeeaaally feelin’ it today, pap. why don’t you just…..ya know, go on without me.” Sans yawns midsentence and seems to lose track of his thought before adding an; “i’m sure it’ll be more fun that way anyhow.”

“NOPE, ABSOLUTELY NOT, BROTHER, YOU HAVE HAD ALL DAY TO BE ‘NOT REALLY FEELIN’ IT’. AT LEAST PRETEND FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS, YOU’RE GOOD AT THAT!” Papyrus’s expression goes from upset to slightly worried then quickly seems to change back. The shorter skeleton has taken to resting his chin on the counter again and watching Grillby write down another customer’s order. For what, he has no idea, but it certainly seems interesting.

“man bro, you know me too well.” The shorter skeleton laughs but it fades all too fast. Papyrus eventually sighs and picks his brother up off the stool with a surprised grunt from Sans.  
Of course, he doesn’t mind being carried. Means less walking. And it is kinda nice. But being carried by an upset Papyrus isn’t very fun. Especially when it’s an angry Papyrus in a hurry.

 

By the time Papyrus has managed to get his brother to wake up a bit more, it’s been nearly half an hour. Half an hour left for him to convince Sans that he needs to change his clothes at least once today and convince him to call a cab. Papyrus always gets too nervous when talking into the phone and yells a bit louder than normal. Humans aren’t always the best at those sorts of situations either.

He notes that he should probably get Sans back into complete sobriety, but one thing at a time.

Despite all of Sans’s insistent groaning that he really shouldn’t be out of the house (he’s just not feelin’ it), Papyrus gets him dressed and ready to go by the time the cab gets there. Really the only difference in this outfit is a gray hoodie and a change of shorts.  
Sans keeps groaning. His brother ignores him, setting him down in the seat beside him and giving directions to the driver. Another individual in the vicinity causes Sans to finally cease his complaining and he stares out the window on the entire drive in silence while Papyrus makes conversation with the cab driver.

 

The driver takes them around the massive studio’s parking lot and drops them off at the door.  
Thank god they didn’t have to park here themselves, Sans would have probably passed out before he’d walked from the only few open space sin the back to the door.

Outside the building a line has formed. The two brothers pause and stare for a moment. A clump of individuals (both humans AND monsters in one place for once. Only Mettaton could manage that much of a crowd) chattered and shuffled around in the front. These people were easily identified by the shirts they wore, bright pink with some glittery design reading “I <3 MTT”.  
Oh boy. A fan club. Joy.

Sans and Papyrus have by now moved to the end of the line, and after a few moments a guard comes out, selecting a few people and leading them inside. It wasn’t like this was an exclusive access thing was it? Sans found himself curious and peered around the crowd slowly.

It appeared only a few of the individuals in the front clump were lucky enough to have scored tickets for themselves. The others were just… kind of there.

It doesn’t take long before those who have tickets and those who don’t are separated by these guards, and when the two skeletal brothers file past, Sans’s gaze is locked on the guard. He recognizes them. They lived in Snowdin! One of the dog guards! Only here they were using their fluffed paws to separate people as kindly as possible.  
Sans didn’t get a chance to talk to them before Papyrus was dragging his wrist to keep up with the hustling crowd. 

Papyrus is taller, which means he’s in charge of finding seats, and find seats he does. Somehow. Up in the middle section a couple of monsters have to scoot to make room for the two skeletons. Papyrus politely begins making conversation with them while Sans takes his seat and slumps down in it.  
There’s about ten minutes of that conversation and Sans slumping and hiding his face hoping no one recognizes him.  
It’s getting darker, the shorter skeleton notices. And the audience notices too and begins falling hushed. The lights get dimmed right when Sans sits up again and he’s thankful, now he can close his eyes without being nudged by his brother.

A hushed silence falls across the darkness.

Then the stage lights start up, bright and illustrious to most. Muffled cheering echoes from a few monsters in pink shirts.  
Some song starts up. It’s low and humming at first, and Sans faintly recognizes it from the buzz on the TV. Papyrus is grinning excitedly. 

There’s that clicking sound of high-heeled boots and Mettaton strides out flawlessly onto the stage, microphone in hand. The music grows louder and when it reaches its peak, he’s at center stage posing.  
Sans scoffs at this and rolls his eyes while the crowd’s already cheering and applauding the robotic host on stage.  
Mettaton makes a gesture with his hand and the music dims.

“Good evening beauties and gentle beauties. I am so thrilled to see so many people could make it today!” Mettaton greeted them all, voice oddly charming. Well, not that it was odd that he was charming. Only that Sans wouldn’t usually have that thought.  
The skeleton made it his focus to be falling asleep, not watching Mettaton continue on his introduction. Sleeping, not watching Mettaton move and flutter his eyes the way he is. Sleeping.

Of course Sans is an expert at nodding off and it doesn’t take very long. In between segments on the show (If Sans is honest he really has no idea if this is anymore than a talk show today based on the ‘guests’), Papyrus keeps nudging him up and awake. But the taller brother seems to get lost in those stage lights and the show, as does the rest of the crowd.

Although once when he did get too comfortable, Sans that is, someone from behind him had yelled “I love you, Mettaton” at top volume and caused him to nearly fall out of his seat when he got a bit too startled.  
This was no matter however, because he was back to dozing off calmly in a matter of minutes.  
Speaking of minutes, he wasn’t sure how many had passed when Papyrus was shaking him awake again. The show was closing. The music was turning up again and Mettaton was talking directly to the crowd.  
Those lucky viewers in the first row were getting quite a treatment from him at this point, walking by and holding their hands and speaking in that. That voice.  
“Now, my dears, you know I’d stay if I could, but we’re out of time for today.” Mettaton seemed to finish his closing speech here, walking back up the stage and standing in the spotlight. He runs his metallic hands up his hair slowly for show.  
“Of course, that shouldn’t stop you from coming back next week.”  
He’s talking to the camera now, with a wink (is it really winking when he only ever shows one eye?) included.

And just like that it’s over and Mettaton’s moving backstage and the crowd is cheering, some are whining, some are getting ready to start shuffling out.

“so how was the show? did you enjoy yourself?” Sans asks his brother when he gets a minute between all the loud conversations going on around him. He’s stretching when he asks so a couple of the words sound more tired than he meant them.

“WOUDN’T YOU LIKE TO KNOW?!” Papyrus rounded on Sans angrily. Well it wasn’t exactly angry. Sans knew that. It was just frustration. “BUT YES. YES I DID ENJOY THE SHOW.”

“hey i told you i wasn’t feeling great.” Sans countered, pressing his hands into his pockets. “i’m glad you had fun.” He added while shuffling awkwardly behind Papyrus to get out of the row.

“AT LEAST YOU’RE AWAKE NOW, SO WE CAN GO BACKSTAGE!!” Papyrus is smiling again, frustration gone, following a small line of people who seemed to be heading back to an area with guards in front of it. He’s grabbed Sans’s arm and has started dragging him off again. Sans doesn’t have it in him to protest.

Papyrus’s tangible excitement was written across his face as he hurried to the backstage entrance where a few other guests were visibly walking around and chatting with the production crewmembers.  
The guards standing in the front are busy telling off a few fans who were caught trying to get backstage. It only takes a couple of ‘no’s’ to get them to leave.  
These monsters are huge. Quite a bit taller than Papyrus, broad shoulders. One has an extra set of eyes and claws. The other is a bit… more difficult to describe.  
At least with only the slight glance Sans got at them while Papyrus proudly showed off their passes and gained them entrance.

Mettaton was absent, oddly enough. The others backstage seemed unfazed by this, and Papyrus was busy chatting up a short human with a headset and a clipboard. Well, their headset is around their neck now. Everyone’s busy cleaning up, it seems.  
Sans felt a wave of relief wash over him.  
Maybe Mettaton wasn’t coming after all. He was a busy star, that’d be understandable. Yeah, maybe he’d have gone off somewhere else to get ready for some interview or something. Or, whatever it was he does when he’s not doing shows like this.  
He rocks back and forth a little on his feet until Papyrus comes back to stand beside him. The taller’s face is still excited, still grinning, still expectant.  
Sans looks down at the ground. There’s still that chance that Mettaton won’t show. 

But, yeah, he’s certainly wrong, the sudden shriek of a fan and crowd forming around a door while the robot strides in. That little crowd forming around him is mixed with the occasional super fan excitedly bouncing. A bit similar to Papyrus right now actually. Sans instinctively grabs his brother’s arm and keeps him from joining the crowd.

Despite the group, Mettaton can be seen overtop the heads, smiling and politely talking to people quietly, signing papers, answering questions. He’s not overwhelmed. He’s not overwhelming, either. That dazzling face and smile are still there, but the eccentric words have been left behind on the stage.  
A couple fans ask for photos and Mettaton looks more than happy to oblige.

The short skeleton begins to notice people with cameras waiting. People holding microphones. People snapping photos of Mettaton without asking when he steps out of the group of fans to make the very short walk to where Sans is holding his brother back.  
The frown on Mettaton’s face when he sees these people is so. Different. From when he’s talking to those fans. Those fans are polite. These people are not. Yet, when he gets to the brothers, he’s smiling again.

“Hello, dears, I’m so happy you both made it!” It’s not that fake stage voice. It’s that genuinely cheerful smile. That annoyingly perfect smile. Sans releases his brothers arm and stuffs his hands back in his pockets.

“THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVITING US, METTATON, THE SHOW WAS SO EXCITING!” Papyrus is almost bouncing up and down again, a clear form of excitement written all across his expression.  
Another camera flash goes off and Mettaton’s head whips around to those people with the camera and then to the guards, who instinctively move from their spots blocking the backstage entrance to blocking the robot from the view of the interviewers.

“Perhaps w could talk in my dressing room instead of out here?” The TV host’s expression is difficult to read, with his head tilted towards a door near the back.

A painted pink door with the letters “MTT” branded into the wood and coated with a swirling design of glitter and sequins. The robot leads his two guests into this door and holds it open for them even.  
Both he and Papyrus have to duck slightly to step inside. Sans doesn’t. A good thing about being short.

The second all three of them are in the door, Mettaton;s closed the door and locked it, leaning his back against the door. Sans is shielding his eyes to the fluorescent lights inside. He wasn’t expecting it to be brighter than the stage.  
How did Mettaton live with these?  
When his eyes have adjusted, he notes that Papyrus is inspecting the lounge area curiously.  
Mettaton sighs and moves to a vanity mirror for a moment to check his face before turning away.

There’s a couch in the lounge (really it’s more of a futon) that’s bright pristine white. It has fluffy pink pillows on it in a row that are perfectly arranged. The color matches the rug beneath it. A coffee table is sitting in front of this futon, an empty glass that looks like it’s been there for quite a while sitting on a heart shaped coaster.  
On the other side of this coffee table, there’s a couple white chairs to match the couch, one of which is now being sat in by Papyrus who comments on how comfortable it is.  
Attached to the lounge is a small kitchen. Sink, mini fridge, even a dishwasher and a couple of cabinets. Granite counter top and all. A stove to top it all off as well.  
In between is a closet door. Sans doesn’t dare open it for fear of being blinded by more lights. Or glitter.  
It probably just has costumes in it. Or something like that.

Mettaton’s busy in the kitchen, shifting for something in one of the cabinets and looking quite frustrated, so Sans takes this opportunity to inspect the vanity.

It’s one of those white ‘vintage’ pieces. They’re pretty popular for decorators. Not that Sans would admit to knowing a fact like that (he does sometimes watch those home remodeling shows). But this one is clearly meant to never be moved again.  
There are lights strung up behind it that glow a bit too bright so that the skeleton has to avert his eyes once more down to the desk itself.  
One half is covered with make up, waxes, glosses, various shiny substances that Sans wouldn’t want to find out what they were. The other half has various screwdrivers and tools spread out across. Loose bolts, lose screws, space parts maybe, he really wasn’t sure what all it was.  
In between a space is clear where it looks like the star had been sitting. Well, yeah, judging by the position of the chair underneath that was probably where he’d sit.  
Pictures were places awkwardly around the edges. Some of Mettaton and his cousin, some of him and Alphys, a variety of fans and the robot strung together and plastered along the sides of the mirror.

Something felt too familiar about this vanity.

And then he noticed an out of place drawing encased in a glass casing. It was plastered to a clear area of the desk. Actually, almost cleared, an empty bottle was also sitting nearby. But that wasn’t important.  
The skeleton made a face and leaned towards the drawing.  
Obviously drawn by a fan. It was little more than a colored drawing of Mettaton’s previous form with a nicely done background. It was messy and the colors were muddled; yet the star had seemed to love it so much that he’d had it framed and made it impossible to move away.

Sans remembered that. He remembered a lot of this room. Only. It wasn’t the same. That drawing. The vanity. Those. Those were the same.

The skeleton took a step back, legs shaking, to avoid any thought that might have started to resurface.

“Curious, dear?” Mettaton’s voice came from the kitchen, where he was drinking some dark liquid out of a tall glass.

“yeah, just wondering if this was supposed to be a make up kit or an auto parts shop.” Sans fought back a slight smile, waiting for Mettaton’s reaction. Unfortunately, it was an edged grin and a shrug.

“Whatever you want it to be, darling.” And then the robot’s drink is gone; he’s wiped his mouth off and set the glass in the sink. Now he’s crossed the room and set down on the couch. Mettaton pats the spot next to him for Sans to join him.  
The shorter skeleton flinches, but comes to sit down.  
Papyrus looks a bit confused by this but doesn’t question. He is the one Mettaton is currently facing, after all.

Sans sits a bit further away from the robot than expected, and Mettaton’s expression proves it, yet that expression fades away pretty quickly.

The few seconds of silence here go without warning when Mettaton starts talking again.

“Is that a new jacket? Why, I’m so flattered you decided to dress up for me.” And of course he’s talking to Sans since honestly everyone knows that Papyrus loves fashion like that but Sans. Sans just doesn’t.  
And speaking of, the shorter skeleton only anxiously watches his feet to avoid answering. When he’s aware of two sets of eyes on him, he finally manages to say:  
“i thought it might be a ‘hood’ idea to wear something different.”

That gets a muffled groan from his brother a snort from Mettaton. At least things feel slightly less awkward now. Only slightly.

“SANS PLEASE STOP POISIONING METTATON’S EARS WITH SUCH GARBAGE!” Papyrus says irritably, crossing his arms with an exasperated look.

“aw come on, such a nice compliment had to be a-dress-ed!” Sans put up a pair of finger guns directed towards his brother (who makes this face of great irritation) and grinned. Mettaton giggled behind his hands at the exchange, eyes switching between the two brothers before pausing and uncovering his mouth.  
His gaze is rested on Sans for a minute.

“It is a very nice jacket, darling. May I?” Mettaton leans over before Sans can say anything to protest and runs his fingertips lightly up the side of the skeleton’s arm. Sans flinches, and maybe the robot sees this because he pulls his hand back.  
“Hmm, is that brushed cotton?” Is that his stage voice? Maybe. It’s difficult to tell.

“YES, WITH A FLUFFY FLEECE INTERIOR!” Papyrus replied matter-of-factly. He sounds proud, and he should be, considering he’s the one who picked it out.

“Oh, then it’s warm too!” Mettaton’s attention switches completely to the taller skeleton.

“FASHIONABLE AND FUNCTIONAL! THOSE ARE THE BEST KIND OF JACKETS!” And here, Papyrus is most certainly smiling; this is a topic he’s good at.

Mettaton chuckled once, flashing that genuine smile. “Yes, I certainly agree!” Sans felt his paranoia return full force.  
If Mettaton and Papyrus had something to talk about then they’d be back again. As much as he hates himself for hoping it, he hopes that the robot won’t become friends with his brother. Although it is too late.

They talked back and forth for a decent amount of time. Sans doesn’t care about fashion to listen but the topic is always rounded back to Mettaton. And boy the star is more than happy to talk about himself in this conversation.  
TV Shows, Mettaton, fashion, Mettaton, Alphys and Undyne’s wedding, back to Mettaton.  
Papyrus even convinces Mettaton to sign an autograph for him ‘just to have of course’, despite the robot insisting it was silly since they were friends now.  
All these topics Sans can only scarcely hear.

His eyes are still fixed on that vanity.

“ You know, I so rarely get to see friends during the week.” Mettaton sounds like he’s ending the conversation there, and Sans tunes back in to notice that he’s getting up. Stretching. Sans averts his eyes. He notices a clock on the wall that Mettaton’s glanced to. It’s been a little under an hour. Does he really only get an hour or so of a break?  
Papyrus is standing up now, too.  
“I have to get into the studio to record some segments for the quiz shows. I’d love to invite you there, but it’s a closed audience unfortunately.”  
The robot actually sounds…. genuinely upset about that. Like he wants them both there.

“WELL I AM SO HAPPY WE GOT TO TALK, THE PLEASURE WAS ALL OURS!” Papyrus nods to Sans now, who’s standing up as well and shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

“This really was fun. You’ll come back next week right?” Mettaton asked it so nonchalantly, but Sans could have sworn he detected hopefulness, or maybe he was just imagining it. No. No he wouldn’t be imagining something like that.

“well i dunn-“ Sans’s denial was cut short by Papyrus shoving him hard in the side.

“OF COURSE WE’LL BE BACK!” The taller skeleton is so happy to say it, but the feeling of dread creeps up Sans’s spine.

“Oh, thank goodness! I look forward to it!” Mettaton’s walking with them to the door and holding it open for them. He looks like he’s going to walk with them, but Sans falls back while Papyrus is excitedly hopping ahead already. The TV host sees this and slows to stand beside the shorter skeleton.

“we can find the exit….” He hesitated, eyes lowered, before adding, “thanks for having us. pap looks like he had fun.”  
Which was a mighty understatement, his taller brother was already far ahead of them, seemingly clutching the autographed photo to his chest and grinning like a little kid.

“Well I had a good time, too. It’s not very often I get to talk to people in between segments.” Mettaton says with that slight smile on his face. “I will be seeing you next week, yes?”  
Why is he trying to confirm it? He knows Papyrus will probably drag Sans back anyways, does it matter?

“yeah, if uh if i’m feeling up to it i’ll be here. should be quite the show stopper.” The skeleton gains that small laugh from Mettaton again, whom he waves goodbye to in a moment before catching up to his brother in a hurry. The robot’s gone around the right corner by the time they’re through the exit.

And then the skeletons are standing outside in the cold air.

Calling a cab.  
Waiting on the sidewalk.  
Sans is doing his best to keep it together for a few more minutes.

He’s walking away a bundle of nerves while his brother gushes over how wonderful the star is in person. How pretty he is up close. Things like that that Sans is pretty sure he already knows.

Not that it matters anyways; he’d never say anything about it.

 

 

 

Grillby’s used to late nights. Especially late nights with his most common customer sitting at the bar. The short skeleton hasn’t had anything to drink besides soda so far, though. But this was unsurprising.  
It was suspected that he’d want to be left alone, seeing as how his bony fingers were tapping insistently on the counter tops. Well, only one hand was doing such. The other was picking bits of food off a plate of fries (at this point they were so covered in ketchup they were hardly recognizable as fries anyways).

The bar is mostly empty. A few stragglers here and there, as per usual. Sans has been sitting in silence for a good few hours without moving, without even acknowledging anyone around him. Looking at nothing but the counter and occasional drink placed in front of him.  
Of course the dead of night is when he finally decides to say something. There’s just the bartender cleaning up as usual. The fries are gone and the plate washed. The smoke from cigarettes has cleared out, all that’s left is the normal smoke coming from Grillby himself.

“hey. grillby. hypothetically speaking. if someone you were totally…..totally completely in love with in a previous cycle of the universe……if they started acting like they wanted to spend more time with you….even though they’re probably not interested in you like that in this world...……and you weren’t really sure how to deal with that, what would you do?” The skeleton hesitates over his words. It sounds like he’s not quite sure how to explain any of this. Then again, it’s an odd enough question for almost no one to know how to explain any of it.

Grillby acts like he’s slightly shocked by the thought and continues going about cleaning. Currently stacking cleaned plates from the dinner rush hours before, actually.

“i mean i totally should have gotten over it by now and i totally am it’s just weird, like all those other times nothing happened none of this happened.” Sans blurts in one breath. His fingers are drumming on the counter again, his face anxious.  
“i’m over it.” The skeleton insists again when the man of flames turns to give him some kind of glare. Sans balls his right hand into a fist and covers his eyes with the left.

“what i’m not over is his smile. and voice. and how nice he is to papyrus. god, he’s so nice to him………..he’s a good guy……i’m over it though.”

The bartender is leaning against the counter now with that glare. His arms are folded. Sans looks up between his fingers and frowns, spotting that doubt on Grillby’s face. They lock eyes and that shared bitterness lingers for a second before Sans slumps down and puts his head down onto the countertop.

“maybe if i just ignore it it’ll go away.” The skeleton scowls, feeling Grillby’s gaze burn (pun not intended) into his skull.

“a lot of stuff is more difficult than this, ya know. it’s not somethin’ worth beating myself up about. he’s not interested in me like that and i gotta move on with my life, right?”

These words hang in empty silence. The bartender moves away from the counter and goes back to cleaning up, moving to the empty tables with a bit of cleaning spray. The man made of flames continues to wipe down the tables while Sans remains facing forwards, lost in thought.

It’s not worth getting upset about. That first timeline was a very long time ago.  
It shouldn’t matter.  
There are other problems more difficult.  
It doesn’t matter.

Things will just get reset soon.

____________________________________________________________________

 

Chris’s note: OK SO I KNOW I SAID TWO WEEKS SUE ME FOR BEING A LITTLE LATE. I really wanted to get it out as soon as we could, but as Quinn said, they fell into a slump and I became really overwhelmed with work for my application to a school. But who are we kidding you don’t wanna hear my excuses. Idk when the next chapter will get out, Quinn said they were inspired to write it but that could change in an instant. I might get some done but who knows. I say check back in a week to be safe.


	3. You call someone nice one time...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Domestic alphyne and wedding planning filler

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chris's note: HEY GUYS I FORGOT TO MENTION WE ARE REAL LIFE PEOPLE WITH SCHOOL THAT DISTRACTS US FROM THE IMPORTANT THINGS LIKE WRITING FANFICTION ABOUT A SKELETON AND A ROBOT HAHA HERE HAVE SOME DOMESTIC ALPHYNE (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

It’s in between the curtains and shutters that the sun starts rising. Their mornings are often found this way, with toes sticking out the bottom of layers of blankets, two bodies wrapped up asleep and starting to stir.

There are actually only three blankets on the bed along with the comforter. A collection of small pillows with mismatched covers, almost like they’d just been hastily placed here. Glasses on the bedside table. An alarm that’s been going off every seven minutes for the past half hour.

Two monsters who could care less what time it is, are still asleep.

 

Undyne’s red hair is in tangles, fallen out around her face (she can’t exactly keep it up all the time when she sleeps, can she?) and rest all across the pillow she’s been sleeping on. No eye patch to be found, glints of scars across that bad eye are shown off to no one. She’s been resting her head on one of her arms with all feeling in it lost. The fins on her face twitch when her eyes flutter a bit. The sunlight is glaring now, it is most certainly morning.

Her fiancé is still asleep, noticeably snoring even though it sounds more like strangled breathing. Alphys has been resting her own head on Undyne’s abdomen, curled up in a ball where she finds herself most comfortable. Their (hers and Undyne’s) legs are tangled again in this position.

 

It’s just so normal for them now. This is how they wake up every day, to messy mornings and near sightlessness and yawning. Undyne stirs some more and Alphys jolts awake before leaning back into the mattress and stretching when her fiancé starts rolling over to get up.

 

The fish swings her legs across the bed and stretches herself, pulling her shorts up a little. Alphys is curled up once more beneath the covers, which she’s drawn up again.

 

“I’m gonna shower, ok?” Undyne tells her while popping her neck.

 

“mmhm.” Alphys makes that noise, but she might as well have not heard at all as her eyes are closed again. The redhead rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling (her large pointed teeth showing beneath her lips) and then she’s gone and planted her real good morning, a kiss, on Alphys’s half-awake forehead.

 

 

They’re running out of shampoo. Undyne makes a mental note while she rinses herself off. Dries off. Sports bra, t-shirt, and shorts put on. Wet hair coiled into a ponytail as per usual. Towel around her neck.

 

It’s like gears turning away; all of this is instinctual. When she leaves the bathroom, Alphys is down in the kitchen. Undyne only knows from the smell. Her fiancé is making breakfast.

 

She takes her time moving down the stairs and finds Alphys scuttling back and forth from the fridge to the microwave. Well, actually, the freezer. Microwavable pancakes sure are easy to make, after all.

 

Her glasses noticeably need cleaning and she’s muttering, and Undyne’s leaned up against the doorframe and is watching patiently.

 

“D-d-do yuh-you w-w-w-wuh…” Alphys frowns, trying to get the words out when she sees Undyne there. Frustrated by her faltering voice, she waves a clawed hand and the fish understands.  She’s always been good at that.

 

“Nah, I’ll just make a breakfast burrito if we still got those.”  The redhead gets a turn to look through the freezer.

 

They do have breakfast burritos. Not very good ones, but that’s never stopped Undyne before.

 

Once the microwaves done being used, they’re sitting at the table eating their respective breakfasts, sitting across from one another at the round table in the middle of the kitchen. Alphys is tapping away at her phone with her claws while eating, eyes darting up to check on her fiancé every few seconds or so.

Undyne’s busy stabbing the burrito on the plastic plate in front of her with a fork. This is… less messy than her eating them normally, actually.

 

But this, this life that they’re living together now, is so genuinely calm.

 

“A-a-ah-are they gonna n-n-nuh-need yuh-you on the build today?” Alphys asks, eyes fixed on a picture from her phone. Looking at different sets of themes for weddings. Nothing that peaks her interest, yet.  

 

Asgore has been working on building a new school, at Toriel’s reluctant request, alongside the one they already have. This one will be for both humans and monsters and will likely be much bigger. But as far as workers go, Undyne’s been there at every moment she can; ordering people around and making sure they stay on schedule.

Since it started snowing, though, most everything was put on hold. The outline of the building is now just that; a metal outline waiting to be put to use. With the snowing stopped for the past week, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

 

“Still too cold out to get most people back and workin’.” Undyne frowns. She stabs the burrito again and looks up at Alphys. “So I guess I’m staying in for the day.” And that’s said with that toothy smile, and Alphys smiles back and then that genuine calm is back. 

 

Within the half hour, they’ve disposed of their plastic plates and put forks in the dishwasher. Now, they nestle on the couch and watch the last bit of morning news before switching over to a DVD copy of an old animated movie. Alphys has had it for a while (got it from a human video store, can you imagine?), neither of them had really had time to sit down and watch it all the way through until now. At least not with each other. They curl inwards beneath a thick blanket and watch while the morning slips away.

 

After talking about the movie in its depth (Alphys had a lot to say and Undyne loved to listen), a couple of knocks at the door interrupt their day.

Alphys frantically darts out of the room to change; she’s still wearing her sleep shirt and doesn’t want to be seen as such. Undyne is left to answer the door.

 

“Hello-oh. It’s y-“ Undyne starts when she sees who it is but is immediately cut off by a crushing metallic hug.

 

“Gooooooood morning to the happy couple!” Mettaton sings before releasing the fish and grinning at her. “I wasn’t aware you’d be home today, but I suppose this just works better!” He continues cheerily, patting Undyne’s shoulder with a large smile on his face. Her confused expression must have said it all, judging by how Mettaton raised his visible eyebrow and nudged her aside lightly.

 

“Alphys, dear, you did tell Undyne we were working today, yes?” He called and luckily for him, Alphys was scampering back down the stairs having changed her shirt and sleep shorts. 

 

“N-n-no, I uhm f-fuh-forgot. S-s-sorry?” She looked sheepishly at her fiancé (who was still standing confused in front of the door). Undyne blinked repeatedly before glancing at the robot. He had a huge binder tucked underneath his right arm and was using the other one to hug Alphys a hello.

A collection of tabs stuck out of the sides of the binder, messy and unorganized. He must have been messing with it for quite a while now.

 

“It’s cool man, what were you guys gonna work on?” Undyne squints and closes the door finally, making her way back to the couch and kicking her legs up on the coffee table.

 

“Wedding planning of course, my dear.” Mettaton proudly sets the binder down on the table, gently pushing Undyne’s feet over a little bit.

Alphys joins her fiancé on the couch, eyes shifting to the chair that the robot was in the process of scooting over so he could sit across from them.

 

“S-s-so wuh-what have w-w-we got so far?” Alphys begins, opening the binder up for Mettaton and peering down at the writing there.

 

“Well, so far I’ve selected a few prime locations, but most of these depend on what time of year you’d want to hold it. Do you have a pen, darling?” Undyne gestured awkwardly in response to the robot (some sort of shrug) while Alphys hopped up and grabbed one from the kitchen.

“Thank you, dear.” He smiled when she returned and clicked the pen to scratch a few things down.

 

“I w-wuh-was th-think-i-ing about a s-s-summer wed-wedding? It c-cuh-could even be outside!” She stammered and sat herself back down next to Undyne, who nonchalantly draped her arm around the smaller.

 

“Sounds good to me.” The fish shrugged. Mettaton nodded seriously and crossed off a few scribbles.

 

“So that means those are out, and an outside wedding sounds absolutely perfect. There are several gazebos on the beach we could rent!” The robot looks back up at the two on the couch for a minute before continuing, turning the binder to show off a couple of images he’d already collected.

“These two are right by the shore, but with enough beaches behind them for dancing. But this one is on a boardwalk in case we don’t want to get our fancy clothes all sandy. This one here is rather isolated so anyone visiting the beach normally wouldn’t stumble on the wedding accidently. Can’t have those uninvited sneaking in to mooch cake.” He smirked before counting off several other locations on the beach and kept flipping his pages to reveal other outdoor locations that were quite a bit less interesting.

 

“I th-th-think a beach w-wed-wedding would be nice. W-what d-d-do you think?” Alphys glanced up at her fiancé who made a face and shrugged lightly.

 

“This isn’t really my area of expertise. I’ve only ever been to one and I showed up late.” She stuck her bottom teeth out, remembering how easily she’d been able to sneak into a dog wedding back when visiting Snowdin.

“But uh yeah, the beach could be pretty cool.”  Undyne finished when she noticed two pairs of eyes waiting for her input.

 

Mettaton smiled and pulled out some extra tabs, and went on to discuss the location and date some more with Alphys (or rather, he talked and Alphys just sort of agreed with his choices) until they’d narrowed it down to two locations. Undyne was watching, seemingly bewildered by how fast they were working.

 

 

“Right, so I’ll call the first and have it reserved and set aside the latter as a back up.” Mettaton concluded finally, shoving some papers back into place and closing the binder. He let out a breath. “I think that’s all we’ll need for right now, later I’ll start working on calling caterers and getting the setup done so I’ll need your input on all of that, but I’ve been hearing good things about some spider bakeries, so we can start there.”

 

 

S-suh-sounds good to me!” Alphys concluded, nodding.

 

“If it’s alright with you, I think I’ll take my leave, wouldn’t want to intrude anymore than I already have. Especially on your day off, Undyne.” Mettaton absentmindedly began scooping the papers spread out on the coffee table.

 

“W-w-w-why don’t you stuh-stay for a bit?” Alphys offered. “I g-got the new Mewmew m-muh-movie for the holid-d-days.”

 

“Well, I’d hate to intrude.” Mettaton repeated himself while glancing at Undyne uncertainly. She blinked upon noticing this and shrugged.

 

“Nah it’s cool, dude. Alphys wont let me watch it until you can watch it with us anyway.” Undyne said in turn, waving her hand for emphasis.

 

“Well…. alright then! You put it on, and I’ll go make some tea!” Mettaton set his now neatly stacked binder of papers down and started making his way to the kitchen.

 

“N-nuh-need any h-help?” Alphys called after him, but he answered with a loud ‘no’. And, well, of course he wouldn’t; it wasn’t as though he had no idea where things were.

 

While that was going on, Undyne had shifted her seating position again so that only one of her legs was sitting on the coffee table. Alphys had hopped up and gone to a small box of DVDs. The one on top (the movie in question) still has a plastic wrapping on it. Wrapping which would be very difficult to open with claws like Alphys’s, but that didn’t stop her from getting it open and disposing of the wrap.

Upon doing such, she scooted over to the DVD set and balanced the disk on her finger for a moment once removing it from the box. Undyne yawned loudly while waiting, absentmindedly watching her fiancé fiddle with some of the buttons on the set. And with the disk. Then she (Alphys) has grabbed the remote and hopped back up on the couch to where she was before.

Instinctively, Undyne’s arm falls lightly across her shoulder and now they’re both waiting for tea together.

Both of Undyne’s feet are on the coffee table again.

Waiting on the robot.

 

After a few minutes (could’ve been longer, who really knows), Mettaton returned with two mugs of tea for the waiting monsters. He placed the mugs on a set of coasters, pausing to slide Undyne’s feet over again in order to do so. The robot waits a moment for Alphys to test the drink and hold up a thumbs-up before smiling and returning to his chair. Alphys clicked the remote between her claws and the screen flashed a couple colors before playing.

 

“So who was it that gave you this, dear?” Mettaton asked while a series of previews played.

 

“P-puh-pap-papyrus and S-sans.” Alphys answered after a second. Her eyes were skimming the writing on the back of the DVD case.

 

“Oh, how sweet! I saw them just the other day!” Mettaton said, leaning to rest his arms on the sides of the chair more properly.

 

“You did?” Undyne raised an eyebrow at him. The robot nodded. “Uh. Why?”

 

“They’ve been coming to my shows for the past week or so. Honestly, I didn’t expect them to be as nice as they were! One in particular.” Mettaton added the last sentence a lot quieter as though he was talking to himself. His gaze trailed off to the side a bit.

 

“Oh yeah, Papyrus is a real sweetheart. Huge dork though. Gotta love ‘im.” Undyne commented with a smile while referring to her friend. Huh, they hadn’t gotten to go jogging this week (although there wasn’t much use for training without the guard). She’d have to call him later.

 

“Well yes of course, but uh. I wasn’t exactly referring to him there, I agree though.” Mettaton had started resting his head on his left hand. Noticing Undyne’s tilted head he followed up on his statement. “I was referring to Sans, dear.”

 

“Wuh??? Are, uh, you sure you got their names right?” Undyne sat up, causing Alphys to slip towards her slightly, confusion written across her blue face.

 

“I…..I believe so?” Mettaton’s one showing eye seemed wide with what appeared to be horror. What if he HAD gotten their names wrong? No, no, that wasn’t possible, but what if he had? The robot’s eye darted over to Undyne for help and she took a deep breath.

The fish monster held her hand up to represent a taller height.

 

“Papyrus.” She said as though teaching a child. Mettaton blinked a few times. Next, she moved her hand lower to represent a shorter height.

“Sans.” Undyne placed her hand back in her lap here and Mettaton looked equally as confused. “It’s okay if you got them mixed up, it happens.” She tried to say as reassuringly as possible with a fanged smile.

 

“No, no, I had them right the first time.” The robot stated. “I was still referring to Sans.”  Undyne’s smile dropped into confusion again.

 

“….are you malfunctioning?” She asked in a deadpan tone.

 

“I beg your pardon?!” Mettaton put a hand over his chest, looking incredibly offended.

 

“Alphys you should check his controls, I think somebody’s tampered with his systems.” Undyne leaned over to pretend-whisper this to her fiancé who was blatantly ignoring their conversation by now.

 

“I am most certainly not broken!” Mettaton huffed and folded his arms, muttering a sentence to himself. “You say someone’s nice one time.”

 

“Pfft, how can you even tell? The dude’s a total mystery.” Undyne grinned a little bit with her tusks pointed out.

 

“I’m a TV show host, darling, reading people is my job.”  The robot made a face at her.

 

“Suuuuuure whatever you say.” Came the fish’s sarcastic response.

 

“If y-y-you gu-guys are d-d-done. I’m guh-gunna start the muh-movie now.” Alphys looked entirely unamused while holding the remote. The TV had been on the main menu for the majority of their conversation, but she just hadn’t wanted to shut them up yet.

 

“Sorry, babe, would ya please start the movie?” Undyne apologized with a smile and kissed her fiancé’s cheek. Alphys sighed and pressed play, ignoring Mettaton shoot Undyne two approving thumbs up from his seat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crowd at the quaint little dive bar tonight had been quite a bit bigger than usual, though now only a few barely conscious stragglers remained.  Grillby was casually cleaning a large spill on an empty table while waiting for the remainder of said stragglers to leave. His back was turned completely to the door of the restaurant.

 

A bell rang signaling the door had opened, and Grillby turned his head to wave and welcome a customer but paused to see a tall robot standing in the doorway. Inspecting said doorway curiously.

Mettaton looked down to a notepad in his hand with a straight face before looking back up. In his mind, this restaurant was a bit…more…old and run down than he was expecting. But after a moment of peering around to the quiet noise of the jukebox in the corner, he decided that the rusted look was just the aesthetic. Or so he hoped. But, the tables were polished and clean and the floors were swept and clear. The wallpaper was new and the booths in good shape. The robot nodded absentmindedly while looking this over.

 

Mettaton approached the long bar in the back of the restaurant, to which he paused for a moment as Grillby had to follow him and move himself behind the bar. The bartender almost immediately started clearing away plates he hadn’t got to yet so Mettaton could sit on the barstool (which was surprisingly more comfortable than he would have expected).

 

“Pardon me, but might I speak to the manager of this establishment?” Mettaton asked, folding his hands on the table in front of him. The bartender paused from stacking dirty dishes in a bin to turn around. Wiping his hands off with a towel, Grillby looked up expectantly, answering Mettaton’s question without saying anything. The robot blinked several times while processing this.

 

“Ah…. so you are Mr. Grillby, then? Well I’ll try to keep this brief; I’ve been all over the town and none of the human establishments I’ve been to cater to both gay and monster weddings and the ones that do are disgusting and I absolutely refuse to pay for second best.” The celebrity paused to take a breath here, clearly sounding tired of repeating himself all day. “So please, please, please tell me you do catering for weddings, someone recommended me here and even though I don’t personally think fast food is the right thing to be served at a wedding, beggars can’t be choosers.” Mettaton spoke in a huge jumbled rush while Grillby held up his hands slightly to signal ‘slow down’.  A couple moments of silence passed while Mettaton waited with an expectant look.

The bartender paused for a moment before turning his attention to a menu, pointing out a small list of paninis that were written inside.

 

“Hmm, well this seems like a decent option. Oh……and I see the catering prices are here too. How convenient.” Mettaton muttered and picked up the menu, holding it in front of his face as he began scanning the listed prices.

 

Grillby, finding himself with nothing to occupy his hands turned around and poured Mettaton a glass of water, setting it down in front of him and patiently going back to cleaning the plates from before.

“Ok, so this says you need a few weeks notice before the event and that a maximum of five dishes can be served in large quantities. Your prices are rather reasonable…” Mettaton trailed off while drumming his fingers on the countertop. “So, I think I’ll go ahead and reserve this date.” He placed his notepad on the table and pulled the pen off it’s clip to write down a few things. “Here are the five dishes I’d like to be prepared. Right here is the location.” Grillby leaned to look at the piece of paper as the robot tore it out of the notebook and turned it so the writing would face the right way.

“So that’s settled then?” Grillby nodded once in response, to which Mettaton smiled pleasantly. “Alright! I’ll return in case some of the details change then.”

Mettaton, having figured out that the stool’s spun, spun his seat around to stand up.

 

“Pleasure doing business with you, sir.” The bartender nodded again and picked up the paper of information.

He gave a brief thumbs up before turning around and looking for a safe place to put it, absentmindedly reading over the name. He froze, staring, singeing the corner by accident.

 Grillby looked back towards the doorway where he caught glimpse of Mettaton’s back as he strode out of the restaurant, the bell singing in announcement that the star had already left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quinn's note: yes......i am....still alive....having fun writing about.....a lesbian fish and her lizard fiance........haha....i am dead....


	4. When all the truth does is make your heart ache...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> guess who's not being subtle about having a crush?
> 
> now try and guess who's being emo for the same reason? 
> 
> :DDD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> from quinn: bonus points if u get the reference . the suffering hour will soon be upon us all. enjoy the dumb references whilst you can

  After careful calculation (and about a day or so of disorganized planning), it made sense to Mettaton why Undyne had been so confused when he’d called Sans sweet. It hadn’t been exactly confusion (more of concern), but he’d just take it as that.

His mechanical eyes picked up on every single mannerism and twitch that even a normally observant person might have missed.

Little things only someone like him would pick up.

For example: whenever someone looked at Sans he would fidget under their gaze, tucking his hands in his pockets and glancing away. But on the other side of that; whenever someone talked directly to him, he’d be listening so well it was almost stunning the difference. Always giving someone his full attention. It was that or he was very good at pretending to do so.

 

On top of that, the robot picked up something else as well. Silent support. Well, that wasn’t the exact term for it, but that was what he’d decided to call it.

He’d watched Sans always back Papyrus up, never talk down to his brother when said brother called himself great or fascinating the way he often did. Mettaton could be the same way, but being polite to a friend and being supportive to a sibling were different.

Siblings weren’t supposed to get along. They were supposed to be vaguely all right with one another.

Yet, here Sans was, endlessly telling his brother how great he was and always supporting him.

 

That being said; it wasn’t as though the shorter skeleton held up a constant ‘You can do it’ sign. It was just very much implied that he did, in fact, care.

 

And, of course, Mettaton was sure that it wouldn’t stop there. Sans handled most every situation with this calm expression and uncaring demeanor. Didn’t get visibly irritated in the crowds, always tried to make room for other people. The skeleton didn’t even care when getting knocked over in the aisles (something which was fairly common with certain shows). He always shrugged it off as though that was an okay thing.

 

This evening was much the same as usual, with the inclusion of the robot now silently studying the shorter skeleton with these thoughts on his mind.

The trio was seated in Mettaton’s dressing room; something which became routine over the past couple of weeks. Papyrus had taken a certain liking to a chair across from the couch where his brother usually sat. Mettaton moved around a bit more and today he was sitting on the other end of the couch with his legs crossed. Facing the taller skeleton directly.

 

While his eyes kept darting between the brothers, Papyrus was busy discussing how he’d read that one of the book series (one of the ones Alphys suggested he read once coming to the surface) he enjoyed had the potential of becoming a movie.

 

“…I’M JUST NOT SURE HOW THEY WOULD HANDLE THE CASTING YOU SEE. THE PROTAGONIST IS HALF MONSTER AND THEY MIGHT NOT EVEN CAST A MONSTER TO PLAY HIM!” Papyrus sighed after finishing his long rant. The skeleton adjusted his seating position in the chair and looked expectantly at Mettaton, signaling that he’d finished talking.

 

“I think they’re going to start setting up dates for auditions for that pretty soon.” The robot made a face while trying to recount exactly what he’d read about it.

 

“YOU’D BE PERFECT FOR THE LEAD ROLE METTATON!” Papyrus said suddenly, sounding excited. “YOU’D BE PERFECT FOR ANY ROLE.”

 

“Oh, you’re too sweet, darling. Although….I’m not sure if that’d be the smartest choice right now..” Mettaton touched a finger to his chin thoughtfully with his gaze now lowered to the floor.

 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” Papyrus asked.

 

“Well my career is currently at its peak. And, well, I’m not sure if that’s worth the risk to go away from what I’m doing right now.” Mettaton explained. Although it sounded like he was trying to talk himself out of it. Branching out of the shows he did right now could be fun.

 

“do you want the role or not?” Sans asked from the other side of the couch. The shorter skeleton appeared to be reading through one of the magazine’s that always seemed strewn about the star’s dressing room.

 

“Well…..I mean….yes, of course. To be in such a production would be an excellent experience and-“ The skeleton cut him off.

 

“then you should go for it. it’s not like it’d hurt you any if you got denied.” Sans said simply with a shrug and a nod. Then he went back to reading. There! That’s what Mettaton kept noticing. How could others miss it? The robot smiled and looked down to think again.

 

“No one’s brought up any information on who would direct it, though. If the director’s no good, the movie will be no good and then I’d be the star from the bad movie adaptation of a popular book!” Mettaton placed a hand over his forehead and tilted his face back dramatically. “I’d never recover from it!”

 

“you know. you could make fun of it on your show or something. talk about how bad production was, i dunno.” Sans said without even hesitating. The skeleton turned the pages of the magazine audibly. Mettaton placed his hand back in his lap. That just sounded so much simpler.

 

“Well. You’re certainly not wrong.” The robot bit back a forming smile and made a mental note to look into the production more.

 

“I TAKE BACK ALL THE CONCERNS ABOUT THE MOVIE I PREVIOUSLY HAD.” Papyrus said, grinning widely. He seemed more excited about it than before, if that was possible.

 

“You’re too kind, dear.” Mettaton waved a hand at him jokingly.

 

“OH, DID YOU READ THE LATEST SURFACE WORLD MAGAZINE ARTICLE ABOUT YOU, METTATON?” Papyrus asked, changing the subject to one Mettaton rather disliked (made obvious by the grimace he made).

 

“Oh, darling, you know I don’t keep up with those.” Mettaton rolled his eyes slightly. It was common knowledge around the studio that the human media had it out for him, what with the star being the _only_ major star among monsters.

“But, uh, what did it say if you remember?” Even if he disliked reading the negativity, he still had to know what exactly was being said.

 

“THIS ONE SAID YOU DIDN’T HAVE REAL EMOTIONS AT ALL. THAT IT WAS ALL PROGRAMMING AND THAT YOU APARENTLY ALTER YOUR PERSONALITY DEPENDING ON WHAT THE INTERNET SAYS WILL MAKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU.” Papyrus said, his voice edged with irritation. Mettaton let out a slight breath after processing that.

 

A popular piece of gossip about the robot, it seemed. Of course, close friends knew about his rather interesting past and how this body functioned properly. But it wasn’t public. It shouldn’t have to be. It was HIS body. However, the lack of public knowledge about how he functioned gave way to…..lots…..of online theories. And the occasional tabloid piece.

 

“You mean to say that they think my personality adapts like an online chatbot?” Mettaton smirked at the thought. “Humans come up with the strangest things. So ignorant.” He shook his head and made a condescending tutting sound.

 

“How do you know the difference between ignorance and apathy?” Sans spoke up from his magazine.

 

“Wh-“

 

“I don’t know and I don’t care.” Sans grinned at himself; having successfully pushed the joke into their conversation. Mettaton paused and buried his face in his hands to muffle the sound of his laughter.

 

Papyrus groaned loudly. “WHY MUST YOU INTERRUPT OUR WEEKLY HATER HATING WITH SUCH NONSENSE?” Sans shrugged in reply, still pleased with himself.

 

Mettaton’s cellphone chimed out a familiar tune and he picked it up, glancing over the message and setting it back down. Just a response from one of the wedding caterers.

 

“you busy?” Sans asked, closing what he’d been reading and plopping it on the coffee table.

 

“Not exactly, but I’ve got quite a bit to get done tonight.” Mettaton sighed once in disappointment.

 

“that’s cool. we stayed longer than usual anyway.” Sans stood up and stretched, an action which Papyrus echoed instantly. The star blinked a few times.

 

“Really, dear, you can stay. None of it is that important!” Mettaton stood up as well, despite his words. He would rather have them stay; they were much better than any of the work he had to do. Even though a quick glance at the time told him that it’d been about two hours since the show ended. It was getting late.

 

“nahh you’re a busy superstar. wouldn’t want you to fall behind because of us.” Sans insisted, shuffling his feet. That subtle kindness again. Almost difficult to miss sometimes.

 

“Well…..all right.” The robot glanced at the time again. “See you both Wednesday?” Mettaton asked, the corners of his lips turned up in a hopeful smile.

 

“NOTHING COULD KEEP US AWAY!” Papyrus vowed, placing a hand on his chest. Mettaton laughed at this, pleased, and made sure to see them out.

 

 

The moment the dressing room door closed behind them, Mettaton smiled again and let out a deep sigh.

He slid back onto the couch in a more relaxed position and stretched his joints.

After a long moment of silence, he stuck his legs up one by one and pulled off the pink boots. Tested his ankles. Everything seemed all right there, as per usual.

Now to get rid of the shoulder spikes, which had their own spot on the table to be set once Mettaton got around to removing them. He stretched again, this time more for his shoulders than anything else.

 

10:17. Still too early to plug in and charge for the night. Unfortunately, he had work to get done.

 

He forced himself to stand up and decided on going to the kitchen. Piles of papers from one of his agents were messily laid on the counter, out of order. Mettaton picked up a few and sighed, skimming over a few lines on each page and trying to put them back in order. Just a couple unused scripts for one of the shows. They could be recycled and used later with some editing. And he’d probably be the one doing that.

 

His thoughts distanced themselves from what he was doing. And somehow he found himself wondering what Sans was up to. Certainly that would be more interesting than reading over these again. Wait what? Mettaton’s eyebrow crinkled in confusion. Sans probably wasn’t even home yet. He blinked and shook his head, clearing the thought away.

 

He set the papers back in a stack, slightly neater. Unimportant things.

 

The robot noticed the sink across the kitchen and stepped over slowly. The glass he’d used earlier that night was still there and he sighed while starting the water to wash it.

Sans always looked at the drink but never asked what it was, which was a comfort to Metttaton. He blinked hard (was he smiling? Why was he smiling?!), Sans had left, so stop thinking about him.

 

Mettaton turned off the water irritably and started drumming his fingers on the countertop to think of something to do. Anything but that same pesky thought. It took a few minutes to do so.

The wedding! Yes, that was something good to focus on!

He did have that binder of notes over on the vanity. The robot sighed and made his way to said vanity to gather his notes up.

 

He had already reserved the location and caterers so that was done; he was especially looking forward to dress shopping with Alphys. A few photos he’d cut from magazine were held together by paper clips in the back. He flipped through a few of them, imagining how she’d look in different styles.

 

He figured something old fashioned would suit her body type better than something overly flashy, and of course Undyne would be dressing up as well, which would be a bit out of the norm but fun to figure out. He wondered if she had decided to wear a suit or a dress yet.

 ‘ _Sans would looks handsome in a suit….Wait! No! That’s not what I meant I mean Undyne would look nice in a suit! Yeah….’_

Mettaton ran a startled hand through his hair while that thought tried to settle itself down. What on earth was going on with him?

 

He closed his eyes and the notebook in turn.

Surely Undyne hadn’t been  _right_! His systems were working fine. So then, why was this thought resurfacing so often? This was getting ridiculous.

 

Mettaton put the binder away and leaned against his hand, once again clearing his thoughts while searching for anything else to focus on.

Oh! He’d almost forgotten to call his cousin.

 

Napstablook stayed up late; so he wouldn’t be bothering them at this hour.

Mettaton retraced his steps to grab his phone off the coffee table and scroll through the numbers to find the right one.

He placed his phone against his ear and flopped back onto the couch.

 

Five rings before an answer.

 

“hullo…?” Asked the echoey voice on the other end, barely heard over a low drumming of what sounded like their music playing. Difficult to make out over the phone.

 

“Blooky! Dear, how are you?” Mettaton asked cheerfully. He heard the noise get quieter.

 

“Ohh……hey Mettaton. I’m alright I guess…” They replied.

 

“That’s wonderful, darling. I meant to call you earlier, but I got rather busy.” He hoped that didn’t sound like an excuse, he had left several reminders to himself to call.

 

“That’s okay…….. I’m never busy…….so I don’t mind waiting.” Napstablook said gloomily. Mettaton swapped ears and held the phone up with his shoulder while scoping up whatever magazine sans had left on the coffee table.

 

“Well, I was going to ask if you could do the music for Alphys’s wedding! I can think of no one more qualified than you, dear, and of course I would like to enjoy the dancing afterwards.” Mettaton grinned even though he knew they couldn’t see.

 

“o-Oh! Really? Wow that’s…yeah…… I definitely want to!” their voice rose in surprise. They seemed very excited by the idea.

 

“Oh, goodie! See, I know you won’t disappoint! Now, the guests might want to make requests. So, I would suggest a mix of your own music with also what is currently most popular on the radio.” Mettaton said, absentmindedly skimming a gossip column in the magazine. Some pregnant human celebrity. Nothing special.

 

“Yeah…..yeah…..sounds good. Maybe…….we could also get live music too? Maybe Shyren would come and sing…….if that’s ok…..” Napstablook suggested awkwardly.

 

“That is a brilliant idea, Blooky! This wedding is going to be amazing!” Mettaton kept grinning again, hoping that some shred of it would come across over the line.

 

“Hey uh……thanks…..thanks for considering me, Mettaton.” They said after a moment.

 

“Any day, darling. How’s about we meet up next week to discuss the music together? Say, around lunch time?” He made a mental note to set said time aside.

 

“oh! Sure. We can do that. If…..If you want I mean…” Their last sentence kind of faltered.

 

“Alright! I’ll see you then!” Mettaton waited for a response but just a little silence came afterwards. A few moments of this before the robot said “Blooky? You there?”

 

“Oh! Sorry….I…I thought you were going to hang up…..I was….waiting on you….” Napstablook murmured.

 

“How about we hang up on three, then?” Mettaton suggested and heard a little ‘ok’ before he counted to three and heard the other line beep off.

 

He set his phone back down on the coffee table.

So music was covered then! It would certainly be great; Shyren was an excellent singer….

Well, when she has a backup singer of course. Her tone often went a bit unchecked and could use a bit of help to keep the sound pure.

 

He wondered if Sans could sing or not. The skeleton did have a slightly deep voice, perhaps it would translate well into singin-

Wait just a moment.

What?

What on earth?

Mettaton looked and fixed his gaze straight: irritation and confusion written across his face.

 

He could NOT be malfunctioning right now; it was the middle of show season! The robot ran a gloved hand through his dark hair in distress, not even bothering to realize that  _every_  season was show season.

 

_‘Should I call Alphys? I only just saw her two days ago, I don’t want to seem annoying. But this is a bad time for me to be malfunctioning.’_

Mettaton thought to himself, the rest of the possibilities for what was wrong too frantic to make any real sense of.

 

So then it came down to either calling the scientist or texting her. And it was likely too late at night to call. Mettaton grumbled and picked up his phone again.

Thankfully, he’d been messaging her earlier and still had a notification, so he didn’t need to spend too much time finding her contact.

 

***Alphys! Dear I’ve got a problem, could you help?***

Mettaton typed with one hand and sent the message before setting down his phone down on his knee. Back to that gossip column, he supposed. The phone didn’t even have the chance to darken before a text back came through.

 

 

***yeah sure!!!!!!! What’s up?????***

Mettaton smiled to himself at her eagerness (or what read like such) and replied.

 

***I believe I might need a bit of maintenance after all***

 

* **undyne tried to tell you XD***

 

***Alphys this is not funny can you help me or not?***

 

***yeah totally!!!!!1 I mean its getting too late now but we can meet up tomorrow to check over your systems***

 

***it’s not that late, are you busy? It’s kind of urgent***

 

***its date night remember????***

 

**“Oh! Right. My bad, dearie. You two have fun!! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do ;)***

 

Alphys didn’t reply after that and Mettaton grinned to himself as he set his phone aside. He checked the time. 10:29.

It was still a bit early but he figured he could plug in now. It had been a long day. And there was certainly nothing else of importance needing to be done. Here, he found himself regretting bringing up the things he needed to get done.

 

Sans could have stayed longer……..

 

Ooookay he was going to plug in now and get whatever this was fixed tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Robots don’t normally dream (or at all, technically). Mettaton was considered a special case. Considering part of him was still, well, ghostly: he would have shreds of fantasy elements to the rewinds of the day that his memory processor ran. Often times this was kept in a lower setting; cycling over important information and building it into a dream as the night went on and storing that dream in back up files. But for the majority, it was daily recaps and disposing of useless facts or fixating on something specific. Some dreams could be kept as memory files, since the fantasy aspect made them aesthetically pleasing and almost like movies. If the robot so desired, the dreams could also be scrapped and pushed into back up files.

And if Mettaton didn’t feel like trying to uncouple his ‘dreams’ the following day, he could shut them off whilst he charged.

 

Mettaton did not think to shut off his ‘dreams’ tonight. He assumed that ‘sleep’ would be free of problems.

A choice he regretted the following day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The robot drummed his fingers on his knee: shifting and fidgeting impatiently and although Alphys was getting more and more irritated, she said nothing of it. Clearly, he was worried about something so she didn’t want to be insensitive.

 

Mettaton adjusted his seating position in his chair again (he’d really only been over for a few minutes at this point) while Alphys had to scour through an old page of notes to make sure what all needed what. He’d said ‘tomorrow morning’ and tomorrow morning it certainly was. And, of course, he’d also insisted that Undyne know nothing of this, god forbid he let her be right about something. Now, Alphys had had him sit down and stay put while she checked through her lists of possible issues.

 

 She did the quick check up, testing the joints and wires that could be frayed. Then she would move onto his chest panel. From there, things could get messy with all the programming centered there. It would probably be best to simply narrow down the problem.

 

“Suh-so w-wuh-what are your symptoms?” Alphys asked, straightening her glasses while turning away to set the loose stack of notes down somewhere (she just chose the little step stool she always had to use when fixing problems).

 

“You see, I…I keep thinking about the same thing, over and over. Almost like it keeps coming back to my mind. And then whenever that happens I believe I overheat and I think my face glitches too.” Mettaton paused in the drumming of his fingers for a second. Alphys wondered if that was on purpose or if robots could develop nervous tics. Hopefully the latter, that could be quite the interesting paper to write.

 

“Huh-how d-d-do you mean?” She turned back around and watched his expression change.

 

“Well, like……no matter what I did to distract myself, it kept coming back to me. Then, last night I even had a…dream, I believe, about it. And every time it happens my fans either slow down or my soul container heats up. I’m not sure which one yet. Hopefully I won’t have to be sure of it but…” Mettaton trailed off uncertainly, face completely serious. Alphys squinted at him for a moment.

 

“Kuh-kind of l-l-l-like you’re blu-bluh-blushing or suh-someth-thing?” She tested slowly, fixing her glasses again to make sure she wasn’t just imagining anything.

 

“Robots don’t….’blush’, sweetie. Its clearly a malfunction of some sort.” The robot insisted, back to drumming his fingers. Yeah, that was probably a nervous tic.

 

“W-wuh-what….uhm…..what w-would buh-be the thought y-y-y-you keep having?” Alphys finally asked, mildly concerned for his answer.

 

This caused Mettaton’s eye to go wide. He made a sort of scrunched face as though he REALLY didn’t want to say anything about it. Alphys motioned with her hand a couple times to say ‘go on’ and he looked down at his knees.

After a minute of this, he cautiously held out a hand just below his shoulder, as though to indicate height. Alphys squinted again and replicated the motion.

 

“I d-duh-don’t get it.” She said. Mettaton made the gesture again, and now Alphys heard the sound of his internal fans slowing and getting louder. That…. could be a potential problem. The reptile studied the gesture one more time and replicated it again before it clicked in her mind what he was trying to say.  And when it did her eyes went even wider than the robot’s had before.

 

That was the exact same gesture that her fiancé had used to describe Sans a few days ago.

 

Alphys spun around, her claws clamed over her mouth to stifle a scream. Was he joking? No, he seemed too serious for this to be a joke but omg!!!!

Thinking about the same person constantly? Blushing and overheating?? Dreaming about them???? Boy, Mettaton had it bad. Since those were all the symptoms of the undying crush Alphys had harbored towards Undyne for god knew how long.

She took a breath and turned back around, trying not to let her absolute excitement show, her features schooled into indifference. Mettaton was running a hand through his glossy black hair nervously, eyes refusing to make contact.

 

Her suspicions had been way off but this was so much better than what she had in mind. Now to come up with something. …..

 

 “Well, can you get rid of it?!” He asked, sounding frantic, when she didn’t say anything right away.  Alphys blinked. She’d been too busy thinking of what exactly to say to actually….say anything.

 

“W-w-wuh-well there c-c-cuh-could be s-suh-something with your m-m-muh-memory processor. I c-c-c-can do a system sw-suh-sweep to check for it.” In other words; power him off, use a blank flash drive, replace a couple useless files so he would see a transfer, and tell him that’d do the trick. Sure it was a bit……invasive or rude to do so, but he’d once outed her crush on live television just to see her squirm and it wasn’t like she was going to do that. …Although…..no, she wouldn’t be able to do that. But this, this she could do.

 

Of course it’d make some sort of sense that he’d like Sans of all monsters. Actually no it didn’t. The guy was nice and supportive, and pretty laid back most of the time. Alphys knew him all right, about as well as anyone else, but he hardly seemed like Mettaton’s type.

 

Oh well it didn’t matter this was _hysterical_.

 

“And you’re sure that’ll get rid of whatever’s wrong?” Mettaton sounded a bit less distressed. Alphys pretended to think for a moment.

 

“I’ll b-be able t-to isolate the issue a-and tuh-take care of it.” She decided that it wasn’t entirely a lie. She could take care of those pesky dream files bothering him.

 

“Should I uh…take off my chest plate, that’d probably help?” The robot said, noting her tone. To this, the scientist nodded briefly and he did just that.

Well at least the control panel there didn’t look damaged. That was a plus. Alphys helped him set the plating down and checking the clips where it would attach back. Yup! Still in top condition from last time. And that left a couple flash drive ports (for updates) revealed.

 

“Alrighty, p-p-p-power d-d-duh-down so I can do the sweep.” She ordered, going into a separate room to retrieve one of the flash drives. While she did this, she heard the robot take in a deep breath and came back to see his lights had dimmed and only a few lights on the control panel seemed to flicker.

 

The second she realized he was no longer able to hear her, she let out and undignified squeal and a huge grin spread across her face.

 

Okay, this was absolutely great! Mettaton never had crushes on anyone; he was usually the one getting crushed on!! She couldn’t wait to tell Undyne about this, she’d love it!!

 

 Wait…….no…..Undyne would probably also think it was great. And so much she’d end up teasing the bot. And then he’d know. And then it wouldn’t be a secret. And then he’d hate Alphys for not telling him. And then they couldn’t be friends anymore and everything would be terrible and now she was starting to overthink things.

And okay maybe she didn’t exactly think any of this through.

 

But someone had to know, who was she supposed to tell?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Napstablook lay on the floor of their home, staring intently at the ceiling. The only task on their mind was deciphering the issue with the current song playing. It started soft and crescendos the way it should, but it just felt off. They wanted to make sure it was just right. However, this meant laying on the floor for hours trying to figure out just what exactly they were missing. …Well,  they’d planned on doing that anyways, but still.

 

A frantically loud knocking noise at their door stirred the little ghost out of their trance and they hovered over to the sound system to turn down the music.

 

“PSST! N-n-nuh-Napstabl-bluh-blook!”

 

Napstablook paused when they heard their name. Surely someone wasn’t here to see them. That was. Not as rare as before but. Still.  They floated quietly to peer through the little peephole in the front door.

 

“….Alphys? Why are you here? It’s very late…..you should be at home……” They asked as they opened the door for the out of breath reptile.  She held up a clawed finger while leaning over as though she’d ran all the way here (catching her breath seemed to take a moment). “Are you okay?” The ghost looked concerned, but Alphys waved her hand.

 

“I….g-g-guh-gimme a s-s-s-s-suh-sec….have b-b-big n-news!” Her stammering did usually get worse when she ran, seeing as this part of the neighborhood was in her jogging route, Napstablook would know. But even so she was doing nothing to conceal a huge grin on her face. “P-p-p-plus it’s o-only like eight!”

 

“oh…ok?...but why did you come to me to tell your news to?” Napstablook floated out of the way, gesturing for Alphys to come inside to which she nodded a tired looking thank you. She even had on her running shoes, the ghost noticed. She must _have_ been on a jog then. They hovered slightly to the sound system in the corner and turned it off completely, even switching off the computer attached to it so Alphys wouldn’t see what they were working on yet. It was to be a surprise.

 

“You’re th-th-the only one who I know c-c-cuh-can keep a secret!” Alphys turned to them excitedly with an even wider grin. She seemed excited.

 

“Oh….I guess you’re right….who would I tell….” Napstablook glanced away gloomily. Alphys made a face but ignored this.

 

“O-o-ok suh-so the suh-s-secret!” She bit her lip, practically bursting with excitement yet again. She waited another second; thinking Napstablook was as anxious and enthusiastic as her, but after seeing them just blink several times in anticipation, spit it out.

“Mettaton has totally got a huge crush on Sans!!!!” These words held no stutter, which was a shock. Most likely because she’d been so thrilled to say them.

 

Napstablook stared for a moment then tilted their head to the side. Their cousin? “oh..…uhh….yay?”

 

“I kn-know isn’t it gr-gruh-great?!” Alphys hopped around excitedly.  “Th-they’re a-a-absolutely p-p-p-puh-perfect for one another! They’re g-g-gonna get m-m-married and have four kuh-k-kids and be the p-puh-perfect pair! EEEEE!” She squealed and practically danced around Napstablook’s small, one-roomed house.

 

“Uhm…….How do you know all of that?” They floated up slightly above her to avoid getting dizzy from her little dance.

 

“Because he b-b-basically described m-my crush on U-U-Undyne! Except w-w-with S-s-sans! And a-also I’ve g-got this!” Alphys reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a white flash drive.

 

“oh…uhhh…yay?” Napstablook repeated with the same tilted head.

 

“ _This_  has got his m-most ruh-recent druh-dr-dream on it in a b-b-backup file! He t-t-tuh-told me he had a dr-dream about Sans so now….” She stated proudly upon seeing the ghost’s confused look. In her clawed hands, she held that flash drive like it was a precious artifact.

 

“….oh…uhm….Alphys…. isn’t that….like an invasion of privacy or…….something?” They hovered forward and back uncomfortably, almost like the floating equivalent of fidgeting one’s feet.

 

“Naww he’ll n-n-n-never f-fuh-find out!” She gestured towards Napstablook’s laptop in the corner and they promptly turned in back on for her to use. Polite hosting. That was their reasoning. Alphys offered them the drive and they showed her where the port was. In a moment the file was loading.

 

“D-d-duh-don’t w-w-worry, I’ll er-ruh-rase it from the drive l-l-later. I jjust gotta see it some-wuh-where Metta w-w-won’t find tr-traces.” Alphys said, thinking she was reassuring them. She was not. That didn’t even make any sense.  She probably just wanted someone to share this with. And she’d chosen Napstablook. Which was. Sort of an honor to them, actually, as they discreetly opted not to look directly at the video playing and instead Alphys’s squealing reaction. 

 

 

 

 

It was dogs’ night at Grillby’s. Loud raucous barking and card playing filled the establishment.

This sort of tradition was getting to be pretty popular at the little dive bar, what with all the dog monsters now in one convenient area to actually participate. It’d even become a weekly event instead of every other week.

Even Endogeny showed up now, though they mostly just sat under the table sneaking away the dog treats everyone was using to bet with. And of course to plop their head (if it could even be called that) in the laps of all the other customers in order to get food.

Lesser Dog was losing badly, probably because they seemed to be playing something else entirely. One could wonder if they even understood the numbers printed on the cards, as they seemed more interested in being pet when they did something correctly.

 

Either way, Grillby was very busy, running back and forth providing the group snacks and making sure everything stayed mostly intact.

The jukebox had been playing the same melody all night and even that’d be enough to drive most crazy, but the bartender of flames seemed to have this covered.

 

Doggo’s ears shot up when he heard the bell of the door ring. Someone was moving! A skeleton! A skeleton was moving! He barked a cheerful hello to the short being, considering he’d usually be unable to see this one, it was extra cheerful.

 

 Sans paused, about to leave then decided to simply sit at a booth in the corner where he wouldn’t be included in whatever it was that was happening. He really didn’t want to be sober right now. Or awake. Or…. either of those things.

The skeleton waved a hello to Grillby as he passed by with another round of drinks for the dogs and slid into the seat of a booth. He leaned and rested his chin on the table.

 

Each of these performances he’d been going to became harder and harder to ignore and each time Sans left, he felt worse and worse. These patterns were so new and he hated that. He hated feeling oddly comfortable there. With him.

 

It would just reset so what was the point in having comfortable patterns? What was the point in having friends? What was even the point in feeling like this?

 

“Hey, Sans! Care to join us?” Dogamy asked, spinning around in his chair and giving the skeleton a friendly open-mouthed smile. Behind him, Lesser Dog slid several dog treats out of his pile and onto the floor where Endogeny quietly lapped (?) them up.

 

“(Yeah Sans! Nobody’s as good as you!)” Dogaressa added. It wasn’t true, he usually ended up cheating in the end. But it still used to be fun. Used to be.

 

“no thanks. ’m not really feelin up to it right now. you guys have fun, though.” Sans shrugged and went back to sitting with his face down on the table.

 

“Alright, well tell us if you change your mind!” the couple turned back to their seats and barked angrily at seeing their betting treats had vanished, swatting playfully at Lesser Dog who looked entirely clueless.

 

Sans sighed and balanced his head on one hand, having grown tired of looking down at the table. Instead he looked at a wall. What a riveting view.

Eventually Grillby got around to taking his order but didn’t stick around for a chat, unfortunately. The skeleton could’ve really used it for a minute, but didn’t really think much of it. Talking was hard work, after all.

 

A collective growl rose up from the table of dogs as Doggo boasted loudly, seemed like he’d just won a paw. His cards were spread out on the table. Sans wondered how he’d ever find them again. Not like he could see them anymore.

 

“I smelt that! You’re cheating!” Dogamy shouted.

“(Dirty cheating dog!)” Dogaressa echoed this.

 

“Get your nose checked, I won fair and square!” Doggo barked back and squinted, searching for the cards.

 

Grillby dashed by for a moment, setting a plate of fries and a drink in front of Sans before hurrying off again to clean up a mess of crumbs on the floor. The skeleton didn’t even get a second to say thank you.

 

 Sans poured a large puddle of ketchup into the corner of his plate but didn’t eat any yet (although he downed his drink pretty quickly, what a shock). In actuality, he just sort of let the puddle just get bigger until he got tired of watching the ketchup drip and slunk down into a stationary position to stab a fry in the ketchup.

 

However, he did jump violently when he felt something fuzzy and sticky nuzzling his leg. Endogeny.

The amalgam was nuzzling his leg from under the table; when noticed, they crouched down and wagged their tail(s) gleefully.

 

The skeleton chuckled once (albeit weakly) and took a clean fry from his plate and tossed it to them. It was caught by their orifice midair and swallowed whole. They crawled forward, snuffling Sans’s hand and body for more. Which was sort of disgusting, but not really like the living skeleton could complain.

 

“hey, hey, chill. there’s plenty more.” He pushed them back and tossed a few more fries for them to catch. After seven or eight of these, Endogeny made an echoing sound from the back of their throat (or would it be throats?) that Sans figured was a yawn because they laid their head down on his lap and began to snore right afterwards.

If you could even call it that. More of just raspy dog noises. Weird.

 

Sans scratched them between the ears and smiled slightly.

After a moment and a sigh, he muttered.

“what do you do……….when you want something so badly but no matter what you do and how it ends up, you know it will all be for nothing?” He asked, not expecting an answer. Endogeny looked up and made a strange low noise.

“yeah, i don’t know either, pal.”

 Sighing again, Sans pushed his drink to the edge of the table, silently requesting it be refilled and sat back in the booth, still petting the amalgam.  Endogeny decided to hop up on the spot next to the skeleton’s chair and seemed much more comfortable this way. Sans placed his hand on the amalgam’s back while it snored.

 

“i mean…..”

 

_When all the truth does is make your heart ache._

 

“eventually i’ll just…forget like everyone else, right?”

 

_Sometimes a lie is easier to take._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> from chris: what was on that flashdrive? who knows but you can bet ur ass it was gay as hell. also this chapter is longer than the last one because i felt we needed to make up for making you wait so long. yeah this one is 21 fucking pages long and i'm not even exaggerating.


End file.
